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BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Brazilians are getting ready for the October presidential election amid talks that the country, South America's largest economy, is on the brink of bankruptcy and might go into a meltdown as bad as the one Argentina recently suffered. In the first seven months of this year alone, the real, Brazil's currency, had lost 23 percent of its value against the dollar. Most of the loss happened in July. And Brazil is nolight-weight Argentina. A Brazilian fall might cause quite serious collateral damage all around the world. Brazil needs international help, but the outside signs are not encouraging. Foreign banks instead ofhelping were getting the money out of the country. Before going on a South Americatour, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, had one more bad case of foot-in-the-mouth syndrome and suggested that Brazil among other South America nation was diverting international financial aid to Swiss bank account. The declaration left Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and he threatened to not receive O'Neill if he didn't apologize. Something similar to an apology came fast andon August 5, both met in Brasilia. Protesters used the meeting as a background for the burning of an American flag outside the presidential palace. Brazilian officials hope to secure an IMF loan and calm the market, which has been jittery for no and every reason, including the possibility or even probability—if polls can be trusted—that the new Brazil ian president will be a leftist. The IMF says that it needs some assurances from the candidates before lending more money. Centerleft candidate Ciro Gomes, however, who is second in the polls, behind the government's candidate, has already said he is against such a conditional loan package. And his determination is getting him more votes. The Brazilian economy grew an anemic 0.3 percent from March 2001 to March 1002. Who's to blame? Cardoso and his current $15 billion agreement with the Fund, says Gomes.
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Memory Dies Chico Xavier, the pope of Spiritism Obituary Juruna, the chief who went to the House Elections Who's running for what. The numbers. Security Starts monitoring of Amazon. It's Sivam. Issue Sivam, at the US's service Politics Can Serra be saved? Elections Ciro Gomes, the mosquito who roared Economy Soros and the Lula factor Opinion Brazilians not Americans vote here Opinion Time to take the foot from the brake Wall Street Anxiety attack over Brazil Poverty A day in the favela In Portuguese Two short stories by Glauco Ortolano Religion Against all odds, black women overcome Music Review Chico Buarque's precious oldies Language English for Brazucas IX Tribute The extraordinary life of Roberto Drummond Presidency 8 years of Fernando Henrique Cardoso - Part 2
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Tribute The Pope of Spiritism The future spiritist leader studied only until 41" grade. He Chico Xavier's wish was to die in a day began his work as channeler on July 8th, 1927, at age 17. Legend the country was in has it that in 1928, Carmen Pena Peracio, one of the members of feast. And death came the reduced group of spiritists of Centro Espirita Luiz Gonzaga, that same Sunday, June which was founded by Xavier's father, had a vision: in it young 30, in which Brazil won Chico Xavier was hit by a shower of books. He saw that as his the soccer World Cup mission in life: to be a prolific writer. The channeler says that he had his first encounter with the in Japan. dragging to the Brazilian streets spirit Emmanuel in 1931. Chico Xavier would sign several books celebratory crowds the under Emmartuel's name throughout his life. His first book, Parnaso de Alem-Tzimulo ( Beyond-thenation hadn't seen in ears. For the most fa- Grave Parnassus) was published in 1932. The 400-page book mous spiritual medium included 259 poems "dictated" by great Brazilian dead poets like psychograph in Brazil Castro Alves. Olavo Bilac. Arthur de Azevedo. Alphonsus de and maybe the world it Guitnaraens, and Augusto dos Anjos. Some intellectuals assured that the style of each poet had was peace at last, after 92-year-long exist- been preserved. And the widow of Humberto de Campos, one of the poets in the collection, went to the ence filled extreme of suing Xavier to get her part of the with perdead husband's royalty. A judge denied it. sonal sufexplaining. "The man is dead. and dead fering and inspiration for a whole country. people have no rights.- Probabl:s disgusted Lucid until the end, he had spent a routine - day:, with the whole episode. Campos never again visiting Casa da Prece (Prayer House)--the place used the medium to continue his poetic where he used to hold his psychographics' seswork. sions—and staying at home. in Uberaba, state of Among the author's books there were Minas Gerais. He died—or as spiritists like him like novels: spiritual, philosophical, and scienan., eIe 5e Aos 5, to say—disembodied in his bed. soon after dinner. recupen CO WIC pogo,th tific essays, as well as self-help works, e ye a Jolicy quelee, o 'e from cardiac arrest. ban eerie elo Ileto adeeve, sYSOde which have sold a total of25 million copies. While the Brazilian selecao was being received in O dor., Peoloiro tleacdee His books have been translated into several Brasilia. the capital. on July 2nd, by hundreds of languages including English, French. Japathousands of Brasilienses, there was a line of 100,000 nese and Greek. Andrei uiz, another spirit. people trying to say their final goodbye to the Alineiro was also a constant partner in several books (from Minas Gerais state) channeler. by the spiritist leader. Andre Luiz is bel'rancisco dc Paula Candid() Xavier was called the Pope of Spiritism and many considered him the world's most lieved by spiritists to be the pseudon) m of famed physician important spiritist leader. He psychographed (wrote while in Carlos Chagas. who in 1909 discovered the American trypanotrance) 418 books, many ofthem translated in foreign languages. somiasis, also known as Chagas disease. Xavier became ahousehold name in Brazil during the 30s. By Xavier was born on April 2"d, 1910, in the small town ofPedro then, the medium was already able to Leopoldo. in the state of Minas Gerais. The father. Joao "psychograph" more than 700 "preCandido Xavier. took the boy to the local priest, when f scriptions" in only one session. Accordhe at the age of four started complaining that there was ing to Xavier himself, most of these a spirit bothering him. Father Sebastiao concluded that prescriptions were dictated by Adolph() the child was possessed by the devil and sent him back Bezerra de Menezes, a homeopathic home with a penance: 1000 Hail Marys and going to physician and philanthropist, who was processions with a 30-lb stone on the head. It didn't born in Ceara. lived in Rio, and died in help. The spirit wouldn't let him alone. 1900. He was only live when his mother. Maria Joao de When Chico Xavier moved to Deus. died. Left w ith nine kids to raise, his father, Joao Uberaba, still in the state of Minas Candido Xavier. appealed to relatives to help. Xavier , Gerais—a town welt larger than his nawas sent to his godmothers house, Dona Ritinha, who tive Pedro Leopoldo—in 1959, he alproved to Iva very mean and abusive guardian. She used ready was well known not only in Brazil to beat him up three times a day in predetermined hours but also in several foreign countries. so he would get rid of the "influences of the evil". There he would establish athriving spirLittle Xavier used to bleed after the beatings and itist community dedicated to help the many times he would hide in the backyard. It was in one poor and the sick. Casa da Preee (Prayer such occasion, he said later, that the spirit of his mother House) and Casa da Paz (Peace House) appeared and told him: "Be patient, son. You need to grow up stronger for the work. And he who doesn't suffer will continue even now to distribute every week hundreds of baskets not learn how to fight." Instead of becoming a rebel. Chico Xav ier containing food to the poor of the region. grew up as a very resigned man, always with a smile in his serene Trust face.
0 carma do medium
This seems like a tall tale, but weekly newsmagazine ism F.' tells that Chico Xavier in 1979 saved the life of Jose Div no Nunes, accused ofmurdering his best friend Mauricio Henriques.
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BRAZZIL -AUGUST 2002
The fact occurred in Goiania de Campinas, a small town in the state of Goias. The judge in the case accepted the deposition of the dead victim, who through the medium, not only cleared the friend but also revealed the identity of the real murder, who was able to disappear before being put behind bars. ' The image mosthave of Chico Xavier is that of a skinny m always smiling behind tinted gl asses and covered by a checker cap, which he wore to hide his baldness. He also used to wear a wig, one of the few vanities he allowed himself to have. In the last 43 years the medium lived only from the pensionlesot after etiring in 19584as ac3ricaLorker re Minas Gerais artment of Agriculture. All the Money brought by charities and spiritist works. Seme, of his simple pleasures:.; gelatin, meatball, tea, and classical music. in special Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. His was a spartanly furnished, blue and white house, with two bedrooms, at Rua Pedro I, in the Parque das Americas neighborhood, in Uberaba. At the endofhis life, Xavier had hearing problems, with only 30 percent of his hearing capacity left. He was also blindfrom an •eye and couldn't see very well from the other. Besides, he had a hard time walldngaround. Despite his feeble health, however, the channeler kept his daily routine until the end. He used to wake at 8 AM, have breakfast and scan the day's newspapers. After lunch and a siesta, he was ready at 3 PM for the daily it of his barber Belmiro Chagas Neto, Netinho, who besides aving him, for many years took also care of the channeler's s. Saturday was the only day he went out to meet the group Espirita da Prece. There were always lines ofpeople from all over the country in front of the building in the hope to at least get a glimpse of someone they worshipped like a saint,
The Spiritism was the creation of French Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail (1804-1869), better known as Allan Kardec. He authored several books on language and arithmetic, and was a professor at Sorbonne University and other renowned French schools. In 1855 he started attending mediums sessions. Soon after e revealed that he had a personal communication from a spirit who Id him that they had be friends in another life, among the Druids, in which Rivail w *died Allan Kardec. That's the way he would sign his books frin then on. His famed work The Book of Spirits, the first systematization of Spiritism, was published in April 1857. In France, however, according to an article published by weekly newsmagazine Ve.ja in July 2000, the only Kardec association has a little more than 150 members. Jacques Peccatte, from the Allan Kardec Circle ofNancy, is quoted as saying, "H ere,in France, as all over Europe, Spiritism is unknown. It's not considered Something serious. Onlym Brazil the Kardecist doctrine is really developed." In a recent interview, Dorval Ciamponi. president of Sao Paulo's Spiritist Federation, suggestedthat there are more Spiritists in Brazil than the statistics reveal. "If we include all of those who goio central' (Spilitist temples) the number of Brazilian spiritists reach 20 million," he says, and with a touch of irony: "Many of them declare themselves Catholics or Protestants to the Census, but someone who believes in communication with the dead , can not be considered a Catholic" Accordingtoe th (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica--Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) Census, there are 2.34 million declared Spiritists in Brazil. While an impressive number, this represents less than 1.5 percent of Brazil's Some expertsheiieve that at least 10percentethe , population(17 5miliioni. population practices Spiritism eventhough many ofthemareCatholic or belong to a protestant denomination. More than that that,5a9su Brant veymade in 1996 by Vox Populi showed p; 0rrazilians believe intotwo basic c postulates of Spiritism that are not accepted by Catholicism or Protestantism: communication ith the dead mid reincarnation.
Trying to demystify the spiritual medium, Realidade—the defunct magazine that many consider Brazil's best publication ever—, in the '70s, wrote that Xavier had no special powers. but was Cbk&s Phrases o imply the constant victim of epileptic eizures. Elias Barbosa, his physician at receive are e time, denied, however, that the spirperfections I ist leader was ever an epileptic. carry". i I, a kind ofdomestie Chico Xavier becalm a cu It figurei Death: "A c ut a person's Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He was one of the most popular essential people in thecountry, and in 1981 more than 10 million Brazilians hann ling, my life, I dedicated them Donationøfoi signedapetition asking the NobelcOmmittee to eonsiderhis name, to my family, to my s o the people. My death is mine. I am for the Nobel Peace Prize. That same year, House Representative entitled to it. Nobody c ch my body. It should go to mother Jose Freitas Nobre, himself a spiritist, delivered to the Nobel earth.' committee in Oslo a package of informatiOn onXavierweighing Dreams: "Everyone rld has the good fortune of more than 200 pounds. The papers showed that by then close to dreaming. I believe that od, in his infinite kindness, gave us the 2000 assistance programs were being funded or helped by his::dream as a right as a crea e. No other creature can interfere with ork and the sale of his up until then, 183 books. He was' nominated for the Nobel in 1981 and again the following year. ' His mission: "I feel Ii e a wonderful machine at the service of Brazil has a number of spiritual mediums that—differently iritism. Only that I nee constant repairs due to my imperfecfrom Xavier—became famous for their spectacular "spiritual" tions. My obligation is orrect my defects and do unto others operations, always without anesthetics sometimes using only a what I wish for myself." kitchen knife. Ze Arigo (Jose Pedro de Freitas). who died in 1971 Liez"Sometimes, as Emmanuelsays, you need to postpone the n a car accident. and Rubens de Faria hinior, for example, claimed truth,' , to be possessed when in tranceby , a Dr.. Fritz. Dr. Adolph Fritz Marriage: "I resisted the temptation of the flesh, and it was not inpresentedasaGerman doctor who died during World War easy:The other day, the great Gaiana (from Goias state) poet Cora Faria Jimior has been charged and is being prosecuted now in Coralina told a rep orter that old people, even old people, are entitled Brazil for charlatanism and illegal exercise of medicine. His to erotic dreams. Wonderful dreams... But I didn'tcome to this life prestige seems to be intact, however, with foreign audiencesi to get marr*,My commitinent is with channel ing arid my spiritual including inthe HS, who like to invite him for conferences. family is aiready a large one". Solitude: "Good only to ponder about because, without The Basis doubt, we were created to live with each other," What hurts him: "To offend or to harm somebody." p. BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
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The former Xavante chief and ex-federal representative Mario Juruna, 62, died on July 16 in Brasilia from renal complications caused by diabetes and high blood pressure. A vigil over the body ofthe ex-indigenous leader was held at the Black Hall of the Chamber ofRepresentatives and he was buried at the Namunkurá village, located in the municipality of Barra do Garcas, state of Mato Grosso. He married three times and had 14 children. Juruna was one of the most important personalities of the Brazilian indigenous movement in the last three decades. He became very popular in Brazil for recording all the conversations he had with governmental authorities and later on accusing them of making false promises. In March 1980, after overturning a judicial prohibition to leave the country, he presided over the IV Bertrand Russell Tribunal for Human Rights in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. In 1982, he was elected federal representative for the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) ofRio de Janeiro, becoming the first indigenous person to hold a seat in the National Congress. In response to the then minister of Aeronautics, Deli° Jardim de Mattos, who criticized the population of Rio de Janeiro for having voted for "the loincloth of an uncultured and exotic man," Juruna wrote a letter in which he said he had been elected with 80,000 votes and asked the brigadier with how many votes he had been elected minister. "I would like to know whether your ministry has the competency to decide on or issue opinions about the political and civil rights of indigenous people," he questioned, finishing the letter saying that he had been elected to "bother you"—that is, people in high places. His career as a member of parliament was brilliant and marked by controversy. He was the first chairman of the Committee for Indigenous Affairs ofthe Chamber of Representatives. In April 1983, he delivered a document to the then minister of Interior, colonel Mario Andreazza, accusing Funai (Fundacao Nacional do Indio—National Indian Foundation) of jeopardizing the interests of indigenous peoples based on the testimony of 360 indigenes and missionaries. In a speech he delivered in September of that year in defense of the Patax6 Ha-Ha-Hae people, he referred to the then president of the Republic, general Joao Batista Figueiredo, and his ministers as "corrupt men and thieves." As a result of that speech, he almost lost his seat in parliament for offense against decorum. He supported the so-called Dante de Oliveira amendment proposing direct elections for President of the Republic and accused businessman Calim Eid of trying to bribe him to vote for the candidate of the militaryregime, Paulo Maluf, in the Electoral College. In April 1985, he voted for the opposition candidate, Tancredo Neves. After the end of his term in Congress, he unsuccessfully tried to reelect himself three times and ended up becoming an advisor to PDT leaders in the Chamber of Representatives. Very sick and bound to a wheelchair, he lived the last years of his life in Guard, a satellite city in Brazil's Federal District. According to Cimi's executive secretary, Egon Heck, his death "silenced one of the most important figures of the indigenous movement in Brazil. It also silenced his legendary tape recorder, which we miss very much."
Obituary
B e to the Chief
This report was originally published by the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI). According to Agencia Brasil, the official voice ofthe Brazilian government, citing a report from the Superior Electoral Court, 18,151 candidates are running for 1,600 offices in the executive and legislative branches in this year's elections, which will take place on October 6. That same day, Brazilians will also be electing their next President. The largest number of candidates, 12,978, is running for state legislatures (deputado estadual), where there are 1,059 seats at stake. In 1998, the date of the previous election, there were 9,918 candidates. This year's race for the 513 seats in the lower house (deputadofederal) involves a total of4,629 candidates, compared to 3,354 in 1998. With two-thirds of the Senate up for grabs this year, 334 candidates are running for 54 seats there, compared to 165 in 1998 when 27 seats were vacant. A total of 210 candidates are running for 27 governorships, compared to 174 in 1998. Finally, the only race where the number of candidates has actually fallen is for president. Instead of the twelve candidates who ran in 1998, this time there are only half that, six. The same Agenda Brazil informs that the Chief Justice of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Nelson Jobim, has delivered a final report evaluating the Brazilian electronic voting system to the heads of congress, representative Aecio Neves and senator Ramez Tebet. The evaluation was conducted by the University of Carnpinas (Unicamp). According to Jobim, the report says the system is "robust, secure and trustworthy." Forth is year's October elections, a total of 114 million Brazilians are eligible to vote. There will be 406,000 electronic voting machines; as a further security check. 51,000 of them will have a printout capacity.
The four-Year Itch
This information was originally published in the Agkcia Brasil site at www.radiobras.gov.br 8
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
On July 25, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso inaugurated the Sivam (Sistema de V igilancia do Amazonas— Amazon Vigilance System) During the ceremony. the Minister of Defense, Geraldo Quintdo, explained that the system will monitor 5.2 million square kilometers of Brazil's Amazon region where 9 states are located. Qu Undo called the implementation of the system a political act by the State in defense of its sovereignty within the framework of a (eo-strategic policy. With three-fourths of the system now operational. Quintdo also mentioned that it was "imperative" that funding for the remaining 25 percent of the system be available. Cardoso said that the Sivam project surprised the world by its boldness, and ' was developed exclusively by Brazilians. The Sivam is part of the SIPAM (Sistema de Protecdo do Amazonas Amazon Protection System). More than $1.4 billion was spent on Siv am, which consists of a monitoring system for the whole Amazon basin region. which besides Brazil, includes parts of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. With regard to the Colombian region. the concern is with security and the movement of persons, boats and aircraft along the border vv ith Brazil, which stretches for 1,600 kilometers. It is an area where cocaine is grown. Peru and Bolivia are concerned with environmental information that Sivam will furnish from data collected by 200 weather and hydrological platforms scattered throughout the region. The Amazon Vigilance System is part of a strategic plan to protect the Amazon flora and fauna. The Amazon has the world's greatest variety of animal and vegetable life and plays a key role in the planet's weather and ecological equilibrium. The Amazon covers 61 percent of Brazil's total territory, contains one-third of all the forests in the world and 30 percent of all biodiversity that has been cataloged. It also contains the world's biggest amount of fresh water. In the recent past. the Amazon has undergone serious problems, such as inadequate human occupation resulting in predatory farming, reduction of biodiversity, illegal lumbering and environmental degradation. Urban areas in the Amazon have had trouble with population concentrations, deterioration of health services and reduced levels of human well-being. Three new aircraft, which Will operate as part ofSivam, were incorporatec into the Brazilian Air Force. The planes were manufactured in Brazil by Embraer (Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA). the same company will furnish another five planes in the near future. According to the Air Force, with the aircraft in operation Brazil will be able to protect its sovereignty by detecting any invasion of its airspace. Information collected by Sivam could be passed on to Colombia. The matter was discussed in a meeting between Cardoso and Colombia's president-elect Alvaro Uribe. According to Foreign Minister, Celso La f'rer, U ri be expressed interest in the possibility. Said Lafer. "Brazil is aware of the fact hat Colomb a must decide what is appropriate, after all, it is responsible for its own public security."
Security
Eyes Wild Open
•
This information was originally published in the Agenda Brasil site at % ww.radiobras.gos'.br
BRAZZIL -AUGUST 2002
Amid accusations by the Fu/ha de Sid() P (tido
newspaper that the current Chief of Staff of the Air Force, lieutenant general Marcos Antonio de Oliveira. favored the Americans duringthe tender for the project, president Fernando Henrique Cardoso inaugurated July 25th, the Amazonian Surveillance System (Sivam). in Manaus. The stated objective of the project is to monitor, by means ofairborne radar and satellite signals, 5.5 million square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon. According to the Folha, general Oliveira leaked confidential information that favored the Raytheon company, the fourth largest Pentagon contractor, in a public tender against the French company, Thompson (now Thales) for deployment of Sivam. The stakes were US$ 1.4 billion. The military also supposedly promised to pass on information collected by Sivam to US authorities. The accusations are based on 400 documents that the newspaper obtained from the State Department. Ever since the project was announced, in the early I 990s, Cimi has expressed concern on a number of occasions that. besides issues related to corruption. Sivam could negatively affect the rights and interests of the indigenous peoples and riverbank populations of Amazonia. Similar to the example ofthe Calha Norte Program, Sivam was conceived under the bias of the old militaristic doctrine of National Security, according to which the indigenous populations that live on the country's borders are potential enemies of Brazil. The newspaper, Estado de S. Paulo stated that Sivam is entering into operation just at the moment when there is a military build up on the border with Colombia, where nine fronts are located against the Armed Revolutionary Forces (Fare). As foreseen. information collected by Si vam illI most likely be utilized by operations ofthe Colombia Plan, a US 1.3 billion project financed by the United States. Under the pretext of fighting drug traffickers, the project has clear military objectives within the neighboring country. Everything indicates that Sivam will be nothing but a branch of the broadest aerial monitoring system ever in South America and the Caribbean, evidently' controlled by the government of the United States. This assumption is in accordance to some of the Department of State documents disclosed by the Folha, in which the American government commemorates the victory of Raytheon not only as a business success, but as a geopolitical advance as well. In a telegram dispatched on June 13th to the State Department, then-ambassador ofthe United States to Brazil, Melvin Levitsky, stated, "that this project represents not only a very important business opportunity (...), but it also represents an excellent opportunity' to further the interests ofthe US government in the fields of environmental monitoring, air traffic safety and activities to combat drug trafficking. to name but a few". This report was originally published by the Indigenist MisCouncil sionary (CIMI).
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Brazil's most important spending concern has to be to repay its massive debt, estimated at $344 billion.
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
As North American tourists and media people fly into Rio de Janeiro,"Garota de Ipanema" can't help ringing in their ears. The Tom Jobim classic, just as the bossa nova (or new beat) samba-jazz mélange he crafted, sounds the eternal music of South Side Rio de Janeiro. Beaches stretch out, growing longer in succession, and interrupted only by whale-finned mounts sprouting sharply out of Paleolithic times. The more curious among the northern folk turn away from a horizon, once streaked by the pirates and buccaneers, covertly coveted by the British and French. In shifting sights, this tourist or that journalist first end up seeing a mountain range carpeted by Rio's infamous ,favela slums. Don't let the tarnished picture-perfect tropical scene bother you. Many favelas are beautiful in their own right. If you were swept up by one of the hand gliders at fashionable, though polluted, Sao Conrado beach, rising up over the coastal range, you would begin to surge above the extremities of the NorthWest Zone. Down below, conditions of squalor concord only remotely with the surfing seaside breeze. Hotter than the coast, pagode and (Brazilian) funk music pump through lusting sweetness only more deceptively to bring contrast to the violence of daily living. For the ears of whom the reality principle is noise, VillaLobosian dissonance would now be clashing with the smooth timber ofJobim's "Wave". As stiffly as the wind repels courageous swimmers in lpanema, Brazil's progressive movements are being turbulently rocked as the tide of presidential elections slowly surges higher. On the national and state levels, Brazil is now going to have a chance to truly and really embark upon a long-term endeavor to curtail the ebullient effusion of endemic poverty. Polls for October's presidential election show Lula, the head of the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, or PT), as holding a strong lead over the government candidate, Jose Serra, from the PSDB (Partidoda Social Democracia Brasileira— Brazilian Social Democracy Party). Until the recent June 24 CNT/Sensus poll published in Brazil, Lula solidly led all his opponents for the second month running in not just the first, but the second round of elections—prior to forming any alliances. The July 16 lbope poll confirms Lula' s still ahead at 33 percent of voter intension. He is seconded now by Ciro Gomes, the charming though gentle candidate of the Worker Front (Frente Trabalhista), an ambiguously center-left BRAZZIL -AUGUST 2002
populist party still undecided about join have been reading of Brazil' s many social ing ranks with deposed former president problems in its highest profile dailies and Fernando Collor de Mello. According t periodicals. In the perception of an averthese polls, Brazilians, for whom voting i age American whose little knowledge of compulsory, still favorthe promise ofreal its gigantic southern neighbor relies on progressive policies, instead of the mi}- what the media affords to inform, Brazil rage of the populist maze. fits the bill ofa tropical land being torn by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been innumerable problems. this position before. Emerging as a These North Americans will have autoworkers trade union leader in the lat sweated from the news of the triple-type 1970s, he has been at the helms of the P dengue fever outbreak and its toll on ever since its inception. Though failing t tourism. They will have trembled at the capture the title in three successive presi stories of tourists being mugged and, dential elections, he was ahead in pre worse, shot while visiting the Cidade election polls for each of them. He ma Maravilhosa (Marvelous City, as Rio is have lost in the second rounds to shiftin sometimes called). They will have been alliances, but over the years his Party ha shocked to hear about the drug traffic moved into running towns and state related violence, and brutal murder of throughout the country. Showpiece cit journalists and civil servants. Positive ies like Porto Alegre and states like Ri stuff. And unless they are fairly wealthy, Grande do Sul are both governed by P these North Americans will have probleaders at the municipal and state levels ably skipped over the financial pages In addition to the city of Sa'o Paulo (Sout with their daily mises-au-point ofhow the America's largest city, with a populatio Brazilian currency is faring. of 11 million people), the state of Rio d This is primarily where the injustice Janeiro itself, headed by Ms. Benedita d begins. In spite of its exoticism, few counSilva, has turned to interim PT gover tries get as bad press in North America as nance, at least until her expected re-elec Brazil. By contrast, were one to attention this fall. tively follow 'the Financial Times, its Even more, the PT has the allure of a pages would revealingly deliver in halluhonest party. Deeply averse to the popu cinatory detail the real political pattern of list stances so typical of Brazi lian politic the northern disruption of southern since the 1964 coup d'etat, it has devel economies. Whereas northerners figured oped a solid record of public administra out long ago that Lula is the next candition, attention to culture and research date to be crushed by capitalists, these and commitment to middle and lower clas same readers may not even get very close concerns and aspirations regarding edu-1 to hearing about Lula' s fundamental pocation, health, purchasing parity and sitions. The northern establishment press policing. Moreover, once in Brasilia, the still wallows in the half-hearted argument PT plans to focus on implementing an on how socialism only works well on efficient, which means real, tax strategy in paper—while the capitalist system moves order to curb the flight of capital, often into yet another of its predicted and preillegally resting in offshore accounts. In- dictable crises, perhaps the only laws by ternationally, through the exposure given which the system as a whole really abides. to it from the two Social Economic Fora in So what are some of Lula and the PT's Porto Alegre, the Party has come to con- positions? The fact that the question geal the hopes of a fractured and be- even has to be asked carries an annoying trayed Left, whose alternative for citizens air about it. In the countless dailies and of G7 countries has been increasingly weeklies fill ingthe stands ofBuenos Aires, falling into simple, albeit vocal, absten- Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo, any number tionism. of articles by northern political and economic analysts and intellectuals are translated. The circulation of northern ideas International Spotlight gives a particular advantage to being in a The international left has not been peripheral country, though it is precisely alone in focusing attention on the PT. this advantage that accounts for its sideDespite the PT's good work on the local lining. It is symptomatic that Anglo-Amerilevel and its generally positive outlook, the pre-electoral context in Brazil has can global dominance has little of the become increasingly dramatic. The criti- same concern for what its multilingual cal situation affects all of the so-called counterparts are saying and thinking. emerging markets in the global capitalist Even Rome—the historical model cursystem. When they are not draped in the rently favored as a precursor by the curepic of Brazil's brilliant surge toward the rent empire's advocates—had absorbed World Cup title, North Americans may Greek and Judaic thought and culture. 11
Soros But the triumph of English, as the Economist recently touted, really does point to world dominance by other means. On June 23, during a question period on a Brazilian television station, Lula was asked to describe the PT's economic platform. The question was set against the background ofthe infamous imperial summons addressed to him by the June 13 editorial of the Financial Times. In a professed move to calm foreign investors, the editorial was penned after the real, Brazil's national currency, had once again come under attack. After seeking to discredit the wild speculation of a future PT government's reluctance to abide by scheduled IMF (International Monetary Fund) loan payments, the FT's editors wrote: "the PT should be prepared to make an early announcement about the composition of its future government team, possibly including some figures from outside the party, to bolster confidence." The image could not be more perfect of the tactics and interests of market players in the faceless global economy. Since then, all eyes and ears have been on Lula and his promise to make a declaration on how the party is reacting to the crisis.
Soros, FT and the Real First the crisis, then the PT. But prior to all that, a remark or two on the FT. To its credit, on May 1st (don't worry, wit has never failed a cynic) the Financial Times editorial came out in full support of the strengths ofthe Brazilian economy. It decried the nerv,ousness being spread by bond risk rating agencies, such as JP Morgan with their Embi+ index, as well as other firms like Moody's. It did so only days after featuring a highly favorable article on current president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, despite the fact that Cardoso is in the last months of his two terms at the helm. Cardoso's brainchild, the "Plano 12
Real", now eight years old, established him in the favors of neo- liberal capitalist economic analysts and planners. The plan pegged the Brazilian real to the American dollar, managed to squash the spiraling inflation that was turning the economy over throughout the early nineties, and attracted considerable foreign investment in consequence. Nonetheless, Cardoso's real plan was undone in the lengthy wake of the debacle that flattened the eastAsian economies. The pressure was such that the currency was unpegged, following which the real was devalued to half of its worth. In fact, the Financial Times has conducted itself not unlike the way one of its gurus, the Hungarian-American financier George Soros, had back in the dark days of 1999. Shortly after the crash of the Sao Paulo stock exchange, on January 13, 1999, Mr. Soros spoke out at the Davos meeting for investors to trust the Brazilian economy. In a gesture which has made him the country's single most important foreign creditor, Soros stepped in with a "wall of money" to continue to resource Brazil's capital reserves as they came under attack in a cat-and-mouse game of increased interest rates on both lending and bonds. Thereafter, President Cardoso shocked local business circles by naming Arminio Fraga Nett°, the head of Soros's $20 billion Fund Management, to take control ofthe Central Bank only two weeks after naming the economist Francisco Lopes to the post. Since its first symptoms were sighted on January 29, the attack on the real threatened to empty the nation's capital reserves. As it was Soros' money that primarily bolstered Brazil's fledging currency, the seat of the Central Bank was given to one of his closest associates. A Ph.D. from Princeton and former vice-president of Solomon Brothers, Fraga had been one of Soros's leading financial managers. If there can be anything taken at face-value
in pronouncements made by Soros in his much discussed writings, he would seem to believe that the ethics of speculation are redeemed if their means are noble ones. Helping to uphold massive economies, for Brazil has the world's ninth GDP, is part of the Sorosian philanthropic project. Whatever the ethics of his principles, since 1999 the real has been generally held within a four margin point range, fluctuating from 2.30 to 2.70 US dollars. After a rocky spring in 2001, and in the market turbulence after 9/11, the real had been sitting comfortably at around 2.5. Then to celebrate its eighth anniversary on July 1, 2002, trading pierced the 2.9 ceiling, a historic low. Following his appointment to head the Central Bank, Mr. Fraga claimed to have grown autonomous from Soros. Two weeks ago however, Mr. Soros publicly declared that it would be disastrous for Brazil were Lula to be elected president in the fall. And, on June 26, he issued a notice on how he once again stands ready to "save the Brazilian economy". According to an InterPress report from 1999, through his persistent investing Soros had become the Mercosul's strongman. But there has been little news of the state and/or movement of his assets in the South American free-trade zone since the collapse of the banking system in Argentina.
No International Plot What can be said with relative certainty is that the current crisis has no single cause to it, though it is rooted in m icroeconomic interpretation of Brazil's future. The mouthpieces of investment firms, namely bondrisk agencies, are layingthe blame primarily on future political uncertainty linked to the strong showing of the PT in projections for October's presidential elections. These firms are both Brazilian and international, so the BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
thesis of a global foreign conspiracy should not be pursued. Still, the Financial Times has not hid its distaste for the PT, and it has been extending the carrot to its economic team to move away from the social commitments, which otherwise require considerable public spending. For in the eyes of its foreign creditors, Brazil's most important spending concern has to be to repay its massive debt, estimated at $344 billion. When creditors fear that a leftwing government may seek other solutions than to prioritize the payback, as in a de facto sharing of needs, risk agencies begin to turn the heat up on the emerging market index point rating system. For example, JP Morgan's Embi+ evaluates the interest rate offered on C-bonds in emerging markets. C-bonds allow national governments to repay debt by offering investors the chance to "buy" debt, in exchange for a handsome compensation. The higher the interest percentage has to be in order to attract investors, the higher , the rating. The index baseline is U.S. Treasury Bonds, currently considered by the market as risk free. With economic instability comes a high rating, like Argentina's, currently topping the list. The inverse works as well: by increasing the rating, economic instability grows. Faced with pressure from Brazil's national and international banks and creditors, the PT leadership decided it had to act. When questioned as to its economic policies, Lula answered: "the PT's platform is first of all to fight misery and hunger. This is what the PT is going to
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
do." He went on to add that all of the PT' economic decisions will flow from thi commitment. But most striking to marke ears was his statement emphasizing that if elected, the PT would abide by the 3. to 3.75 percent primary surplus rate o Brazil's GDP as an indicator of the type o social spending the government shout conduct. Furthermore, he announced his vice presidential candidate, the head of th Liberal Party (PL), Senator Jose Alencar a successful entrepreneur who speak for a certain sector of the business corn munity,while embracing a Fordist-mode political agenda toned with evangelical religious hues. The PT rank and file ha voiced growing pains regarding the alli ance. Yet in front of the cameras, the leaders spoke of a deep alliance between workers and entrepreneurs in a mutual commitment to "valorizing workers before capital", in Senator Alencar's words.
Embi: Mere Opinion Tracer By now, North-American tourists should be relieved. Rio and Brazil will be attended to. Not only is the PT going to work on reducing the widest gap between rich and poor found in a wealthy nation, it will especially make the streets o Copacabana safer for them to stroll. Brazil's GDP pales terribly with its standing when translated into per capita terms, while its place on the purchasing power parity (PPP) index spirals downward to 83rd out of the 204 countries listed (source: World Bank Indicators database for 2001).
So then why, one might ask, was Mr. Paul O'Neill, Secretary of the US Treasury, quoted by the Financial Times, on June 24, 2002, as adamantly asserting that the current pressure on the Brazilian real "is driven by politics. It's not driven by economic conditions"? Paul O'Neill, as any law-abiding American citizen should expect, is entitled to his own personal political opinion. But the fact that his word towers over IMF policies on loan allocation changes the matter considerably. If O'Neill is right, then the fact that Brazil is under financial attack has just aboutnothingto do withthe Embi+ index. Rather, the Embi+ turns out not to be an objective measuring gage at all. It works more as a marker of feelings. And as anyone knows, there's nobody moodier than a creditor. The Embi+ plots a mood curve and a jumpy one, to be sure. For every time the PT manages to convince another sector of business that, indeed, it is now time for Braz s•oppos iti on to assume power, that is if the people so chooses, the risk curve split ends into the sharpest of peaks. Which is why the Embi+ emerging markets index, despite its pseudoscientificity, is not even a marker of subjectivity. It traces opinion, and a limited and narrow self-interested one at that. The next thing the public will be told is that the index works as an echo of the way investors feel about the American market, that with each new corporate corruption scandal showing the real nature of American neo-liberal capitalism, Embi+
marks the way emerging markets will be the ones to sweep up the consequences. For when cash needs meet up with the structural instability of short-term capital flow, no resting place is sacred. Notwithstanding the dramatic tone, it would not be outlandish to profess such claims when considering the fine performance of Brazil's economy. President Cardoso has confirmed that the economy is running well, with expected 2 to 3 percent growth this year—provided the real not falter into lost ground against the US dollar, in which case expectations would nose-dive to barely 0.5 percent. (This figures do not raise any questions about the accounting standards on capital expenditures lying behind the purported 6.2 percent quarterly growth result in the U.S., but that's another story for economists to better inform us on with clarity and conviction.) On June 24, after openingthe Rio + 10 (Earth Summit), President Cardoso advised the press to heed the words of Alan Greenspan, head of the Fed, and Stanley Fischer, deputy executive director of the IMF, who have both declared that Brazil's economic stability is very solid, and its finances solvent. "We do not have the same problems as other countries do. We have to pass on a message of confidence to everyone, including what is said regarding political questions," Cardoso stressed. A few days later, the President congratulated Lula on accepting to favor the primary surplus rate. Now, is anyone surprised at how little these statements have calmed the currency casino? Once again, one need not quote Mr. O'Neill,'norJoseph Stiglitz forthat matter (interviewed in the Folha de Sao Paulo on June 30,2002), to smell the foul putrescence speculators leave in their dirty play. Were there appropriate laws in place for controlling the fine art of 'investing', speculators would at least be criminally accountable for the squalor to which they subject emerging markets through their, globalized casino. As it stands, barely a
14
tof those getting rich from options in the silhouette is cast on their shadows. nineties. But remoteness did bring its ills, How then does a Party maneuver whe it seeks to pass programs intent on mak- 'too, as any materialist law could predict. ing life more livable according to northerrk ' It was, after all, Russia's defaulting on its debt in 1998 that led to the crash ofthe So standards for the citizens of this powe Paulo stock exchange (Bolsa de Valores house of a country? de Sao Paulo—Bovespa) in January 1999, the key event leading up to the real's Economics of Distaste devaluation. Brazil's economic policies have had This is not the place to deal with descriptions ofmisery and the narcotraffic almost nothing to do with Argentina's violence that have come to fill in the social apart from once being its leading trading void left gapping through years of mili- partner. The fact that the IMF purporttary dictatorship and oligarchic rule. Af- edly did not foresee the gravity of the ter all, this article is meant to be a contri- Argentine collapse may not make their bution to economic analysis in the North reassurance regarding Brazil particularly American style. There's no place for the reliable, much less reassuring. So, pervivid and putrid poverty amid the world haps Paul O'Neill is really right to believe of reeling numbers and the smooth whis- that "throwing the US taxpayers' money per of crisply rubbed cash as it spins at political uncertainty in Brazil doesn't seem brilliant to me". Which is why he through the bill counter. Nothing obliges anyone to hear of the informed the Bloomberg network that he 15 daily murders afflicting Rio de Janeiro will oppose additional IMF assistance to state alone, as drug traffickers—Rio is a • Brazil. Mr. O'Neill, just as the Bush Adminmajor pivot for the national and Colombian drug and arms trade—begin to wage istration, has one outstanding merit. Rewar against state institutions as the latter garding matters of taste, they say it like improve the efficiency of their combat they feel. Lula is not the president's faagainst this poverty-related, if not in- vorite, who could imagine he would be? The problem is that the US's own duced, scourge. Added to the pressure on Brazil is its economy is not performing along the neighbor, Argentina. One of the richest good-will lines of American capitalism countries in the world only a half century either. And the market friendly neo-libs in ago, with its pegged peso-to-the-dollar Brazil see that as clearly as they feel the policy, it most recently stood as an exem- pinch on their pocketbooks because plary case in the IMF's eyes of an emerg- Anglo-American financial establishments ingmarket. Following collapse of its bank- are stirring around the Brazilian debt treaing system in December, the country is sure, ensuring that if Brazilians do end up now undergoing pauperization, with the paying it back, they won't before paying barter system returning to the most fortu- , more. This is how the current crisis has nate sectors. Advocates ofglobalization, however, 'come to a head. Anglo-American finanhave repeatedly explained how neither , cial establishments, risk agencies like JP the remoteness nor proximity of econo- Morgan in particular—they were soon mies stand alone as regulative factors of joined by Lehman Brothers, Morgan instability on a national economy. The Stanley and Moody's—all buoyed by economy has become global through the their main press organ, the Financial power of information superhighways— Times, claim to fear the PT's attitude towhich is how capitalist advocates fed the ward Brazil's huge outstanding debt. The good news message to gullible souls with PT, in the voice of Lula himself, has said eyes at least open enough to catch a gaze now that, if elected, it would respect re-
B RAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
strictions on public spending. Moreover, it would not see its arrival in office as a break with the previous government. Still, the North American tourist should be aware that the debt is a remnant of a series of governments that successive American administrations supported to the point of providing military and intelligence back-upto install, implement and maintain a network of regimes meant to destroy the growing South American popular revolt in the 1960's. This coordinated plan, codenamed Operation Condor, bolstered the two decades of m ilitary dictatorship Brazil lived under from 1964 to 1985. After presiding over several boom years, but then under pressure of a liberal capitalist uprising, the dictatorship handed power over to a democratic process still largely directed by regional oligarchies. With a strong dollar, Brasilia could move swiftly to repay its outstanding debt. And this is a key point to Cardoso' self-defense in this crisis that the debt is largely due to the policies of previous governments. With the global stock market crisis begun in 1997, which was actually an effect and not the cause of the global currency crisis sparked off back in 1992 by George Soros' attack on the British pound, Brazil's payable debt increasingly seems to recede on the horizon as the value of the local currency grows ever weaker.
Brief Celebrations In June, the IMF agreed to lend Brazil $10 billion in relief aid. In addition, it lowered the ceiling of its federal reserve to $15 billion from $20 billion to let the governmentbolster the real. To top things off,the federal government in Brasilia has been allowed to adjust its primary budget surplus rate from 3.5 to 3.75 percent, which will also apparently lead to alleviating the brutally high interest rates on loans, which are stifling local businesses. These measures may or may not prove to be effective in this latest round of BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Casino Real. But its costs to the population are high. As I write, throngs of Bra zilians are gathering below behin Candelaria Cathedral, downtown Rio d Janeiro, to greet the World Cup penta campedes. The Selection will be weavin its way down Avenida Presidente Vargas then try to veer right through a barel navigable human sea onto Rio Branc and onward to Flamengo and Copacaban All Brazilians sense, however, tha once the festivities are over, their tru struggle lies in dealing with the behavio of creditors and how speculators will tak advantage of the fluctuating risk ratin level. On June 28, Brazil returned to bein the third most risky nation to invest in now behind Nigeria as well as Argentina Yet one week prior, it held the number tw spot. There is nothing to suggest th struggle will be easy whatever the out come ofthe presidential elections. Franc has not escaped a major drop in the CA 40, even though Chirac managed to brin in his squad at both the presidential an prime ministerial levels. If trigger-happ speculators steered PT voters to wha they claim to be steadier ground, recal that Argentina's ex-president de la Ru was about as close to the street as Moun Aconcagua. Well before Brazil's semi-final Worl Cup match against England, the Finan cial Times, perhaps enjoying some yen geance on their team's wilted perfor mance, smirked snidely at how Brazil' risk rating would be adjusted positivel depending on whether victory was fmall secured. This type of cynicism is wha tarnishes the good-will tone of the May and June 13 editorials. Kenneth Maxwell, the distinguishe author of the essay "Adios Columbus!' and unabashed Brazilianist, has pointe out how it would be erroneous to believ that Washington had their relationshi with Brazil all worked out. Despite recur rent attacks against Brazil in the U.S Congress, and with Secretary Colin Powel
looking for something constructive to do by denouncing child prostitution and labor, exploitation ofthe Amazon rainforests and commercial piracy as ills profoundly setting the countries on opposing courses, Dr Maxwell believes there not to be a coherent agenda. And with every new protectionist gesture concocted by Washington, the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) is becoming a distant memory—all the better as even Cardoso would contend. On the other hand, if Dr Maxwell has had to remain pessimistic on the future of Brazil's relationship with the North, the "rocky times" he has referred to in the pages of the Folha de Sao Paulo has much to do with the debt treasure as only bond and financial risk agencies can smell one. Nobody ought to think Maxwell as being too economically deterministic. Just as economics and management studies have co-opted the very principle of how to organize social groups and collectivities, so also have economists co-opted the political process. It is with the awareness ofthis backdrop that Brazil's victory ought to be hoped for on many fields more than that of futebol. The staccato twitch ofthepandeiro's cupped cymbals recedes and parts to greet the voice of Nelson Sargento. A living samba legend from Mangueira mountain in Rio's North Zone, Sargento sang to Lula three weeks ago during a meeting between the artistic community and the PT executive: 'Don't let Brazil's culture go to waste, Lula, don't let it'. Being deprived of the acute sensuality of a beautiful Brazilian samba back-up vocalist should not be a reason to fail to passionately join in with the refrain. Norman Madarasz holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Paris. He is editor and translator of Alain Badiou's Manifesto for Philosophy, published by SUNY Press in 1999. He writes from Rio de Janeiro, and welcomes comments at normanmadaraszAhotmail.com 15
You are invited to participate in thisdialogue Write to Letters to the Publisher P 0 Box 50536 Los Angeles, CA 90050-0536 or send E-mail to brazzil@brazziLcom LET'S KEEP IT THIS WAY Mr Towle, I would just like to say that you wrote a great article ("Brazil Needs the Bomb... Like a Hole in the Head" - www.brazzil.com/ p29jun02.htm) and I agree with every word of it. I have been to Brazil a couple oftimes and from my observations the last thing that they need to be thinking about is the A-bomb. Brazil is the most beautiful place on the planet with some of the most beautiful people and I hope it stays that way forever. If only everyone in the world felt like you and me.
Jeremy Robinson Via Internet CRAZY BOMB Dear Mr. Towle, I can't believe Mr. Ricardo Amaral thinks the way he does. As you wrote, we have a lot of other problems. Why didn't he mention our two nuclear power plants. We have two, but just one is working "properly". The Angra 1 power plant is located in Angra dos Reis, a seaside resort, do you believe it? The reactor is German and was made in the sixties, I think 1961. And it motivates a lot of jokes. Two years ago, a man died during a training for a contingency plan. If we have a bomb, it would probably be stolen by traffickers or it would malfunction and explode. I think Ricrazy Amaral doesn't live here. Some years ago a candidate for president promised to build the Abomb. Today he's the most ridiculous politician in Brazil. Maybe Ricrazy Amaral wants to be like him. I think that he has been watching The Simpsonstoo much.! ' m talking about the nuclear power plant, Homer, and Mr. Bums. Mr. Amaral wants to be a Bums, but with all those stupid (sorry) things he wrote...I would be offending the cartoon character with the comparison. I hope that you have convinced him about the madness of it all. What you wrote is very, veryinteresting and 1 sent a copy of the two articles to my friends. I know they will love it. As one of my friends told me: "There is nothing to discuss about it. Ricrazy Amaral should see his doctor. He wants just one thing: a hole in the head" Congratulations, Tom. I have never imagined that a former US Army officer thought like that. If the men in the command oftheir countries thought just a bit like you, the world would be safer. Daniel Brazil 16
IT'S NOT OK! This is a comment on the 1 un Lopes s murder story ("Silencing the Witness" WWW brazzil.com/p06jun02.htm). It is a very sad and pathetic situation in Brazil with regards to the manipulation of the drug barons. It is extraordinary that the government and police forces are not fighting these cruel and ugly people. Brazil is a beautiful country, but in Rio they are saying, 'you can do what you like, we cannot stop you. Well, they must fight back with vengeance and be brave and strong and realize that they can get this under control with their determination and great planning and it must be done soon. Tim died a terrible death and many more people too. Is that OK? U Zazzi Via Internet THANKS FOR SOBERING DOWN I am enclosing a mone \ order for ) 01) to renew my subscription for three more years. I have greatly enjoyed and learned a lot about Brazil from your magazine and! look forward to many more years of interesting articles. And thank you for finally toning down the horrible Rapidinhas section—I hated seeing photos and reading about women' so crudely exploited in what is an otherwise intelligent magazine. I have one request. Could one of your informed music writers do an in-depth article on the very talented and socially-conscious singer-songwriter, Martinho da Vila? I would love to see some of his great songs translated since my Portuguese is ver, limited. Thank you. M Anderson San Francisco, California TRUE HONOR As the World Cup came to a close I as truly impressed with the geituitse expression of faith that was displayed by the players. It is refreshing to see that in this time of celebration that honor and thanks were given to Jesus Christ by the team players. My hat is off to you men and may God continue to bless your team with strength and courage. Jose Santos Via Internet CAN I HELP? I enjoyed reading the article on Brazilian street kids ("The Kid in the Street" www.bra zzi 1.com/p40j un02.htm) and my heart went out to the children that were mentioned. I was in Brazil last year working with a human rights group. We went to several and got a better insight into the life of street children. I
FOR MORE LETTERS AND ENTIRE LETTER SEE: http://www.brazzil.com
am currently working on a master's in ESL, but when 1 finish,! plan to go back to Brazil to teach English and work with some of these organizations if they'll let me. In the meantime, I would like to send a donation to the organization you mentioned in your article. If you have the address or know how I can send a donation to Padre Haroldo, I would appreciate it if you could e-mail it to me. Even though! am not in Brazil, I strongly believe in helping these innocent children that have to live on the street. I teach elementary school and! believe that children are our future—in every country ofthe world! Any further information you have about helping the street kids ofBrazil would be greatly appreciated.
Bettina Stifles Via Internet HOW TO SAVE THE KIDS I read with great interest the article in June's edition ofBrazzil regard ing the street children. I just returned from Brazil a few days ago. I did notice a huge number ofchildren either working or begging in Salvador and Rio. It is really heartbreaking to see these children, who are often only maybe 6 years old, trying to hustle to get some money. There are so many of them that the tourist can't possibly give money to all of them. Besides, it seems like the tourist may contribute to the prob I em by letting the Brazi I i an government avoid the responsibility for solving Brazil's disturbing poverty. Perhaps only massive programs similar to what the US undertook during the 60s and 70s will work for Brazil. Presi dent Johnson's "Great Society" programs d id seem to allevi ate the bulk of poverty in rural and inner city areas. The programs led to food stamps, welfare and medical care for the poor. These programs have their critics, but a quick trip to Brazil, Mexico or India proves that the programs do have a positive impact. .
Brian Coffee Philadelphia, Pennsylvania SORROW'S MIRROR In reference to your article on Xavier's murder ("Hate Crime" - wvvw.brazzil.com/ p37jun02.htm) I'd like to say that I am a good friend ofXavier's family and whatAndre Lacerda wrote shows the real feelings of not only family and friends but also of our community as a whole. Congratulations for the article. Sonia Maria de Carvalho Mon tes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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looking for a Miracle If Cardoso loses faith in Serra then he may turn to Lula just as the left-wing supported Jacques Chirac in the French elections against Jean Marie le Pen. JOHN FITZPATRICK
On Thursday, July 25, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso switched on a massive air surveillance system covering the entire Amazon region—two-thirds of Brazilian territory and an area larger than western Europe. The cost of the so-called SIVAM project is estimated at US$ 1.4 billion. Most of us residents would rather have a few more policemen on the streets protecting us from criminals in tee-shirts and jeans but, at least, we can sleep securely at night knowing that no sneak attack by the air forces of Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam or French Guiana will go undetected. What a pity though for the government presidential candidate, Jose Serra, that the President could not switch on a system which would boost his chances and, at the same time, shelter Brazil from the turbulence on the international financial markets which is hammering the economy. While Serra from the government party PSDB (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira—Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy) remains in the doldrums in opinion polls with no sign of a pick up in his campaign, Ciro Gomes (PPS - Partido Popular Socialista—Popular Socialist Party) is settling in as runner up behind Lula (PT Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers Party), who is still in a comfortable leading position. There are increasing signs that the fourth contender, Anthony Garotinho (PSB - Partido Socialista Brasileiro—Brazilian Socialist Party), may withdraw as his popularity slumps and campaign funds dry up. It looks as though we are heading for a first round three-horse race which could lead to a Gomes-Lula second round instead of the Serra-Lula round we all expected. Serra has shaken up his communications team and is betting a lot on the start of telev ision propaganda in August when he will have the lion's share of free airtime, thanks to his alliance with the PMDB (Partido do Movimento Democratic° Brasi leiro—Brazilian Democratic Movement Party). Whether this will be enough to rescue him is the big question. Many members of his camp are frustrated that Cardoso has not been more active in promoting his would-be successor. However, Cardoso is still the head of state and cannot be seen to be too partisan at this stage. At the same time, why should Cardoso attach himself to a sinking ship even though the captain is from his own party? I fCardoso loses faith in Serra then he
may turn to Lula just as the left-wing supported Jacques Chirac in the French elections against Jean Marie le Pen. He has already said that he would support Lula rather than Gomes, a Northeasterner and former PSDB member, who was briefly finance minister after Cardoso stood down to campaign for his first term as president. The PT candidate could benefit enormously from Gomes' rise as, despite Gomes' growing popularity, there is enormous hostility to him in many business and media circles. Olavo Setubal, president of Brazil's second-largest private bank only behind Bradesco—was quoted as telling Gomes that he did not fear Lula. "Ifelected, Lula will do nothing. lam scared ofyou," the Estado de S. Paulo reported him as saying. The press is also angry at what it sees as Gomes' arrogance and refusal to answer questions it regards as relevant to the campaign. A typical headline in recent days was "The Ciro Gomes Risk". The press has also been digging up Gomes' past as a scion of a well-entrenched dynasty in Ceara state, who entered politics through a small party which supported the military dictatorship during their two decades it ruled Brazil until the mid-80s. He has been compared to disgraced former President Fernando Collor, who resigned on the eve of impeachment, and the maverick Janio Quadros who resigned suddenly in August 1961 after less than seven months in office without any rational explanation. Gomes' recent suggestion that public debt repayments could be extended has worried many people outside and inside Brazil. While Gomes is not responsible for foreign investors' unfounded and panicky lack of faith in Brazil, half-baked comments like this by a serious presidential candidate do not help. In comparison, the PT has tried to show the world that it has reformed and will be a good boy. One of its leaders, House representative Jose Dirceu went to Wall Street mid-July to show American investors that the PT was not the radical outfit they feared. His visit followeda similartripbytheparty's moderate economic adviser, Guido Mantega. The PT published a lengthy manifesto which toned down much of the previous radical rhetoric. Many of the ideas have been criticized by economists but we are starting to see less fear within Brazil as a Lula victory becomes more possible. Brazilians, unlike
fearful foreigners, know that, like Cardoso, "President" Lula will have to negotiate with Congress as the PT is not strong enough to govern on its own. Just as Cardoso has failed to get through some of his reforms, particularly on tax, after almost eight years, Lula will also have to accept that there is no way he will ram through his reforms without compromising with the other parties. Let us end by returning to the SWAM project. There are encouraging signs that Brazil does not need a costly system like SIVAM and that higher powers in the shape ofthe Virgin Mary are taking an interest in offering her protection. Brazil is the biggest Roman Catholic country in the world and Brazilians have a strong affinity with the Virgin Mary or Nossa Senhora (Our Lady) as she is called here. There are many Nossas Senhoras from different places and, as the singer Roberto Carlos says in one of his songs, "Todas as Nossas Senhoras sao a mesma Mae de Deus" ("All Our Ladies are the same Mother of God"). A series of images to conventional impressions ofOur Lady have started appearing on window panes around Sao Paulo. Whilesome think the images are just stains and reflections, to many people they portray the Virgin Mary. Around 140,000 people have visited one location, including a Roman Catholic bishop. So far Serra, a native of Sao Paulo, is not known to have visited the site but who knows where he will turn next to resurrect his flagging campaign. John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived in Sao Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicacoes, which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at
iWcelt.com.br
18 BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Pesky Mosquitoes Why has presidential candidate Ciro Gomes suddenly rocketed so high in the polls and will we really see a LulaGomes clash, with Jose Serra, the government candidate, on the sidelines? JOHN FITZPATRICK
Most of the articles which journalists write are as transient as the lifespan of the mayfly and of less importance. This is well summed up in the saying that "today's news is tomorrow's fish and chip paper", a reference to the unhygienic British habit of wrapping fish and chips in old newspapers. Nothing fits more into this category than tracking opinion polls. Candidates and the statistically-minded are hypnotized by opinion polls but to your correspondent these polls are like troublesome mosquitoes which appear from nowhere and whine around your ears irritatingly, demanding attention. Unfortunately you cannot ignore them. The latest "mosquito" is Ciro Gomes, the presidential candidate ofthe small leftist PPS (Partido Popular Socialista—Popular Socialist Party), who has seen his ratings soarto I 8 percent in recent opinion polls. He has even bumped the government candidate, Jose Serra, into third place in the latest polls although the difference is so small that technically they have the same rating. However, this was obviously a setback for Serra and a triumph for Gomes. His smug smirk now appears on the covers of weekly newsmagazines and daily newspapers and he has recently published a book which is really just a collection of speeches. Gomes has been the official PPS candidate for several years and this has given him quite a lot of publ icity and time to build up his campaign. His chiefclaim to fame is that he was briefly finance ministerafter Fernando Henrique Cardoso stood down to campaign for his first presidential mandate in 1994. Gomes was also governor ofthe small Northeastern state of Ceara. He broke ranks with the Cardoso side in the middle of the President's first mandate and criticized his economic policies although in a wishy-washy way, which was
important among lower social classes, who difficult to define and meant nothing to th often cannot afford to buy a daily newspaman in the street. This so-called break wit per and rely on TV for their information. Cardoso's policies has not stopped hi Secondly, Gomes has a romantic relafrom claiming credit forthe successful Plan tionship with a well-known television acReal which halted Brazil's endemic hyperin tress who is fighting a battle against cancer flation in Cardoso's first term. and has lost her hair. She is often at Gomes' Recently, however, Gomes has starte side and brings extra publicity. We are not making waves by suggesting that, if h remotely suggesting that Gomes is exploitwere elected, he would propose extendin ing this personal tragedy but it probably repayments of domestic public debt if cred. touches an emotional chord among many tors were prepared to accept higher intere people. Thirdly, Gomes is young and quite rates. It is still not clear whether the gener. 1 good looking, unlike Lula or Serra. public is paying the slightest attention t Surely these factors are not enough to this hypothetical matter. However, Gome make a presidential candidate? Normally has given his opponents plenty of amm this would be so, but let us not forget nition to use against him. another young northeasterner called Serra says it would be equivalent to Fernando Collor, who became president default and would only worsen Brazil' against the odds in a contest against Lula image abroad. Serra's PSDB site seized o in 1989. For the moment, Lula can safely it and gave some examples of how it woul ignore Gomes, but Serra cannot. If Serra work out in practice. "What would you sa does not improve his ratings then Gomes if your boss wanted to 'extend' your 13 could be a suitable alternative for those salary (employers are required by law to pa anti-PT voters who do not like the other an end-of-year bonus equivalent to alternative, the populist Garotinho. monthly salary)? What would the owner f Official television campaigning starts in a restaurant say if, as you were leaving, yo August and we will see if Serra manages to asked to 'extend' paying the bill?" exploit it to get into top gear. With the The PT candidate, Lula, who is still we 1 support of Cardoso and his impressive ahead in the polls and the PSB candidat , ministerial track record Serra has everyGarotinho, have also dismissed Gomes's thing in his favor. It is now up to him to shake up the electorate with a vision of what his plan, as have several independent ec nomic commentators. As for Lula, he w s government willdo for Brazil. 'the does not, then the mosquito Gomes will come whizsounding positively statesmanlike this wee zing in to destroy his peace. and, in a television interview, said: "The P has evolved and understands that the co John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish tracts Brazil has signed with other countri s journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 need to be complied with." and has lived in Sao Paulo since 1995. He Why has Gomes suddenly rocketed s. writes on politics and finance and runs high in the polls and will we really see a Lul his own company, Celtic Comunicacifies, Gomes clash, with Serra on the sideline which specializes in editorial and First of all, he has had a lot of televisio translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at exposure of late and, as we have stated i ifcelt.com.br previous articles, television is extremel 19
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Serra or chaos: The alternative to a victory by the government candidate, Jose Serra, in the coming Brazilian presidential elections would be nothing less than chaos. "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy," explained mega investorGeorge Soros to the Brazilian reporter Clovis Rossi, during an informal dinner in New York. According to Rossi's reporting, published on June 8th in a major Brazilian daily newspaper, Folha deSdo Paulo, the markets believe that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (the leftist candidate, ofthe Workers Party, or PT, who is well ahead in the polls) will default on the debt payments if elected. Thus, says Soros, the markets are already betting against Brazil, specifically againstthe Brazilian currency, the real. If Lula indeed wins in the two rounds of the elections, scheduled to happen on October 6 and 27, the financial situation would be so dramatic that he wouldn't have any option other than defaulting on the debt. Faced with the intrinsic totalitarianism of such prophecy, Soros acknowledged it, and added: "In Ancient Rome, only Romans voted. In modern global capitalism, only Americans vote, Brazilians do not." He went further: "Laissez-faire (or absolute market liberalism) is based on the same mental structure as Marxism. Both were born in a moment with supposed scientific certainties about the world, a totalitarian vision that impacted both ideological trends of the 9th century." The financier also forecasted that a win by Serra would reassure the markets, because global capitalism wouldn't risk destabilizing a country like Brazil, "the honor student" of the hegemonic economic model. In his article, Rossi points out that "honor student" was a praise largely used for Argentina in the past. "But the honor student was left to fend for herself," Rossi wrote. And what would Soros solution be to avoid the crisis? He suggested a direct intervention by the US Treasury to relieve the Brazilian debt. "But the Treasury does not seem interested," he said.
Election Ilysfunctio Only four months before the presidential elections in Brazil, mega investor George Soros told a reporter that, "in modern global capitalism, only Americans get to vote, Brazilians don't." Are the markets the supreme voter in a globalized economy? LEDA BECK
Big trouble
VICE JOSi ALENCAR 20
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Under the headlines "Investor compares American power to the Roman Empire's - Soros says US will impose Serra, Lula would be chaos," the publication of the interview inspired a chorus of protests from the left to the right, beginning with Soros himself. Approached by Brazilian reporters in London, a few days later, he denied having given such interview to Rossi. "He [Rossi] listened to private conversations during a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations, and those meetings are confidential," Soros told Valor EconOmico, a Brazilian business newspaper, and Agencia Estado, a Brazilian news agency. Rossi had indeed been invited to New York by the Council on Foreign Relations to attend a seminar about terrorism, and Soros was there, at a casual dinner, just after the inaugural session. "We talked for about 15 minutes, face to face, and I clearly introduced myself as a journalist," Rossi recalls. Besides, being a very tall man, he is sure that his nametag must have been right in front of the financier eyes. The mega investor regretted the use of his "reflections" in the Brazilian presidential campaign, but it was too late. Even the beneficiary of such comments, Jose Serra, wasn't pleased: "It was an untimely, inconvenient opinion." The government candidate has since been trying to put out a fire that was actually started by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso himself. Even before Soros controversial comments, Cardoso said in mid May that "Brazil risks becoming an Argentina if the next administration is incompetent." Obviously, an elected incompetent would "Argentinize" any country in the world (provided he gets a little help from the International Monetary Fund, of course). But at the time of Cardoso's statement, the government candidate was trailing in the polls, while Lula, a bluecollar worker who graduated as a turner in technical middle school, was over 40 percent of voters' preference. Many political commentators immediately attached the adjective "incompetent" to Lula, while others, like Rossi himself, denied the intention ofdemonizing an adversary. It may be controversial ifthe intention was present when Cardoso spoke, but the fact ofthe matter is that the result was widespread demonization of Lula as an incompetent that would bring the country to shambles. Lula and the PT did their best to reassure the markets without compromising on some of the Party's fundamental principles. On June 30'h, Lula announced that, as president, he would keep the inflation
targets and the debt agreements untouched, respecting the markets and reducing interest rates. He also assured the public that signed contracts "will be honored," and that his government will try to negotiate new contracts "on more favorable terms." Cashing in on the controversy, the PT also invited Brazilians to choose between "Brazil and Lula, or Soro and Serra." Killing the messenger A renowned Catholic bishop, Dorn Demetrio Valentine (see his article in thi issue), misunderstood the whole affa r and wrote a newspaper article attackin Soros and the US. He went as far as t suggest that Brazilian voters hold a sig adapting a famous Roman expressio "Hail, Bush, those who are about to di salute you!" In Rio's daily Tribuna • Imprensa, the journalist Sebastiao Ne st also published a misguided critique f Rossi's story, defined as a "heedle s three-word interview' (' Serra or chaos ) extracted from the mega usurer Geor Soros in a dinner, and blown out of pr portion in a whole page." Nery inde;. , shot the messenger: "Rossi has no rig t to lend his nameto the nefariousterroris of international usury." Killing the messenger, be it Rossi r Soros, will not eliminate the message i self. "Soros acted as a doctor who loo s at a patient's X-rays and points out t e problem and the prospects," says Rosi. That is right. The perversity of the diagnosis will not be reversed by electi n marketing, aggressive oratory, or its o right denial. As a matter of fact, in Jun in spite of having won the soccer Wor d Cup for a record fifth time in the history if the championship — a feat that was e pected to have very positive econom c results for the country—, Brazil has se n an increase in economic instability: t e dollar reached R$ 2.98 (on July 20th it w already down to R$ 2.86) and, on June 1 , Brazil passed Ecuador to become third n the ranking of countries world investo s fear the most. The investment bank Goldman Sac created then what came to be known n Brazil as a "Lula meter," or a measure f the risks of investing in the country whi h is inversely proportional to Lula' s perftirmance in the polls (in late July he was favored by 38% ofthe voters, followed by Jose Serra, with 20%, and Ciro Gomes, with 18%). In the meantime, the government has accepted an extra US$ 10 bill* from the IMF, and substantially reduced interest rates.
The "Lula Risk" The roller coaster is not over yet. However, at least two well-respected economists have recently denied the existence of a "Lula risk," namely the Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz and Morris Goldstein, of the Institute for International Economics (11E) of Washington, DC. Goldstein thinks Lula is not the problem, nor Argentina is. If these two factors were the problem, he argues, withdrawing a little more money from the IMF would have been an instant solution. The key issue in Brazil is the midterm dynamics of the debt, said Goldstein to the daily Valor: "What really scares foreign investors is the debt, both the domestic and the foreign debts. It is much larger than what would be manageable. No matter who is elected president, he will have to roll on an enormous debt, particularly in 2003." Indeed, the domestic debt alone is above US$ 250 billion, roughly equivalent to 55% of the Brazilian GNP. Goldstein believes that an increase in the privatization program, in the primary surpluses, and in the exports might be helpful. "Besides that, I don't see much that could be done," he adds. "Perhaps authorities might avoid making statements that get people more nervous." As for Stiglitz, he puts it bluntly: "There's no such thing as a 'Lula risk.' Brazil is merely paying the price for having exposed its economy too much to the international markets." In the long interview he recentiy conceded to the business magazine Dinheiro, he warned that "a deregulated financial market is far more dangerous than Lula or any leftist party." He also admonished that highly indebted countries do lose political autonomy to a certain degree. The resulting "foreign voters" change their minds too quickly and may destabilize a country, he said. Nonetheless, in the long term, he added, "democracy always brings better results than the policies dictated by the IMF or by investors like George Soros." It remains to be seen ifa formal democracy plus a free market, in the terms ofthe Washington consensus, and a developing country do not compound the recipe for one single powerful vote that may decide the future of the nation: the vote of the markets, the supreme voter. Leda Beck - ledabeck@pacbell.net is a seasoned Brazilian journalist, a US correspondent in Silicon Valley for Brazilian and Latin American publications since 1993. 21
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
"In global capitalism, only Americans vote, Brazilians do not vote." - George Soros
Whose Election Is This? National dignity urges that we vote for candidates that are ours, not for candidates chosen by the Americans or other speculators. DOM DEMETRIO VALENTIN,
Even in the middle of the World Cup, it is impossible for George Soros' statements about Brazil's situation before the October presidential elections to go unnoticed. He declared, simply, that the world financial system has already chosen Brazil's future president. And it has to be their chosen one if the country wants to avoid chaos. Without any ceremony or constraint, he explained, "in global capitalism, only Americans vote, Brazilians do not vote." He justified his statement by saying that the Roman Empire was also that way, clarifying that "in Ancient Rome, only the Romans voted," the territories did not vote. Thus, according to this illustrious "mega-investor" or "mega-speculator"—a typical representative ofthe new empire ofthe powerful that get rich reaping fabulous profits from the financial crisis of countries strangled by debt— we will not have anything to do in October. The Brazilian elections will not be valid, they will not change anything. The only justification they have will be to ratify a decision already made by the lords of the empire, and carry out the slave's ritual of Roman times, of giving tribute. We know, for example, that those condemned to death had to pass in front ofCaesar, and reverently prostrate themselves before him, in a macabre ritual that contained the famous expression: "Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant." It would lack electoral justice to demand the voters bear this phrase like a sign, even in Latin, or in the translation adapted to the circumstances: "Hail, Bush, those who are going to die salute
you!" George Soros' declarations would not even deserve to be cited if they were confined to what they cannot help but be: an over-bearing expression of arrogance by one who thinks that money buys everything, even the dignity of people and the sovereignty of nations. But it happens that Soros is not alone. He is the expression of a system that has the appearance of neutrality and that justifies itself as the fruit of an irreversible economic reality, defending for itself a deterministic logic above human liberty. But in truth, it is a result of very well plotted schemes that smoothed the way for financial capital to enjoy protection in order to operate securely and freely, removing all the articles of legal framework arduously constructed by modern democracies to protect workers and defend human rights. The speculators think that money is the only important thing and they advocate for a free global playground in which to profit at will, even though they sacrifice national sovereignty for it, as Soros proposed for Brazil. At present, the matter is very serious. It demands a ranking of the candidates. National dignity urges that we vote for candidates that are ours, not for candidates chosen by the Americans or other speculators. A candidate elected by the vote of international speculators will not have any legitimacy with which to govern Brazil. The matter also demands a position from the presidential candidates themselves, as national sovereignty cannot be compromised by any financial dependence. Just as you do not sell your soul to the devil in order to do a transaction, you do not cede the sovereignty of a country for financial motives. The elections will happen and we want them to count. Watchfulness is indispensable. More than ever, the Cry of the Excluded, planned for the Independence Week, in September, will be opportune with the providential slogan already chosen: "Sovereignty is not negotiable." Not one "Soros" speculator (or "domestic Soros") has the right to impose on us any candidate, whoever he maybe. Dom Luiz Demetrio Valentini is the Catholic Bishop of Jales, in the state of Sao Paulo. From 1991 to 1999 he was in charge of CNBB's (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) Social Pastorals as well as President of the Brazilian Caritas. You can contact him at domdemetrioAmelfinet.com.br
22
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
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23 BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Country of Rubinhos The past few decades were foot-on-the-brake times due to decisions made abroad and middle- and upper-class egotism at home. CRISTOVAM BUARQUE
• *
The Brazilian population was shocked to perceive that our racecar driver Rubinho Barrichello had stepped on the brake, allowing his teammate Michael Schumacher to win the race. But we need to analyze the circumstances behind this fact: first, he had no alternative because he races for Ferrari, not for Brazil; second, he is not alone in this dependency, since the entire world is on the road to internationalization and the substitution of corporations for countries. In the 2002 World Cup manyplayers were under contract to international corporations. Only afterwards were they national players. Within a few decades the World Cup Will be played by corporations. The players will be wearing jerseys with the trademarks and colors of their corporate sponsors. And we are complaining about Rubinho, who merely did something quite natural under globalization. For five centuries, moreover, we Brazilians have been stepping on the brake due to external decisions, systematically losing the championship of history. We were born as a country stepping on the brake. Instead of dividing the Brazilian land, occupying it with families and constructing a new nation, the Portuguese preferred to create big plantations, bring slaves, kill Indians, and produce for exportation. They prohibited the production of anything that would compete with the Europeans; they prohibited schools and universities. They did not allow us internal growth, not even for our own people. The methods have changed, but not the tendency to step on the brake. In 1822, we became independent, but, instead of accelerating, creating a republic, electing a Brazilian president, abolishing slavery, and carrying out agrarian reform, we preferred to crown a monarch who wasthe son of the king of Portugal, thus continuing the slave-ocracy system, maintaining the exporting plantations and postponing any sort of concern for the education of our people. In 1888, we freed the slaves, but we kept our foot on the brake: we did not give the former slaves land, nor did we put their children in schools; and we continued to be mere exporters of agricultural products. A year later we proclaimed the Republic, butthe egotistic, unpatriotic Brazilian elite continued to step on the brake, out of fear ofthe wealthy foreigners and disdain for the poor Brazilians. 24
After 1955, that behavior continued in other forms. We accelerated in matters of the economy but ignored the social and the political. In 1964, when Brazil was on the road towards the reforms that would bring social advances, we preferred to step on the brake of the democracy, installing a dictatorship whose effects continue today: political parties with no consistency; politics with no fidelity; governments corroded by corruption and compromised by special interests. We underwent modernization without releasing the brake: without distributing income; without investing in social services; without radicalizing the democracy; without seeking to construct sovereignty. More than any others, the past few decades were foot-on-thebrake times due to decisions made abroad and middleand upper-class egotism at home. The Brazilian elite, allied to the foreign interests, have made a country that is dependent, unjust, unequal, unstable, violent. Brazil is a country that watches as other countries pass us by in the race of history. We are a country of Rubinhos in a world where, every so often, the president of a rich nation has the hypocritical elegance of Schumacher, taking our president out to dinner but keeping the championship. And leaving us with the memory of being the last to free the slaves or undertake agrarian reform and with the bad taste in our mouths of someone who continues stepping on the brake when it comes to social indicators, size of debts, international dependency, degree of violence. Meanwhile, other countries that are smaller and have fewer resources speed pass us towards the future. Cristovam Buarque - cristovambuarqueAuol.com - ex-governor of the Federal District of Brasilia, is a professor at the University of Brasilia Center for Sustainable Development and the author of the book Admiravel Mundo Atual [Brave real world!. Translated by Linda Jerome - LinJerome(&cs.com
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
The Brazilian triumph in the 2002 World Cup should give the Brazilian economy a positive spin in the near future. Brazil needed very badly to win this time around, because ofthe deteriorating economic condition in the country. Brazilians needed anything positive to happen to give them any sense ofhope for the future. Soccer has been used as the opium for the masses in Brazil for a long time. When Brazil wins, the people feel good about themselves and they forget how bad their personal financial situation is— at least for a short period of time. When this World Cup euphoria diminishes, slowly the masses will go back to the current reality of their lives, and they will have to face the devastating effects of a deteriorating and spreading economic decline in South America. The economic situation in Argentina has been deteriorating each day and has become chaotic. The Argentinean economy is shrinking with no end in sight. This continuous economic decline is pushing Argentina into a political and economic black hole. Only fools believe that the complete collapse of the Argentinean economy which is under way would not have a major negative effect on the other economies of the countries which border Argentina—including the economies of Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. So far, the Uruguayan economy is the one which has been most severely affected by the Argentinean collapse. The Paraguayan economy also is in trouble. But, in the coming months, depending on the Brazilian presidential election outcome, there is the chance that Brazil will follow Argentina into the political and economic black hole.
B azil nil tile DIly I hope that the n w totalitarian mentality in the US does not rans late into action and they decide to inte ere if Mr. Lula is elected president. RICARDO C AMARAL
Anxiety Attack With the polls showing Brazil's presidential front-runner Luiz !nada Lula da Silva (known as "Lula") still ahead of the pack, with the increased chances of Lula' s victory in the coming elections, Wall Street started having an anxiety attack. Wall Street started worrying that the leftwing Workers Party candidate may increase spending to fund social programs and jeopardize macroeconomic stability in Brazil. There are different worries by different people about Lula's victory in this BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
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and other measures to boost employment. In another example, Wall Street did not destroy the value of the US dollar when George Bush was elected US president by the US Supreme Court. Democracy? What does it mean for a country to be a democracy? Why there is so much hype in the US for democratic ideals? What type of democracy do we have in the US today? I had a very high regard for the US Supreme Court until they played politics in the last election, when they elected the new US president. If there were a similar election to the last US presidential election in any country in South America or in Africa, I am sure that the US media would characterize the event as a coup d'etat. The Constitution ofthe United States with its Bill of Rights served well the needs of the American people for the last 215 years. This US Constitution was one of the greatest documents in world history. I am sorry to see the American people allowing the destruction of such a great document in the name of fighting terrorism. Benjamin Franklin, one ofthe founding fathers of the US nation, once said: "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety". Since September 11, 2001 the US government took many measures— including the US Patriot Act and the formation ofthe Homeland Security with its special powers, which overrule the US Constitution and The Bill of Rights. I hate to see the United States becoming a totalitarian state with the blessing of the American people. I hope that this new totalitarian mentality of some members of the US government does not translate into action and they decide to interfere with the coming Brazilian election if Mr. Lula is Totalitarian America elected president. I would hate to see a replay in Brazil of the fiasco that ocWhen France elected as Prime Minis- curred in Venezuela and the overthrow ter a socialist and left-winger—Monsieur of a democratically elected president— Lionel Jospin Wall Street did not de- Mr. Chavez. stroy the French currency, the Euro, to Brazil is a democracy and Brazilshow its displeasure with that election. ians should honor the result of the elecUnder Mr. Jospin's tenure, France sus- tion even if Mr. Lula becomes the next tained a period of growth and a large fall president of Brazil. But it is not a good in unemployment, thanks in part to his idea to elect Mr. Lula president at this significant social contribution and by his time, mainly now that Brazil could beintroduction of a 35 hour working week come an option for investments for the election. Wall Street is worrying about his views regarding social programs and the possible restructuring of the Brazilian government debt. But after speaking with a number of people in Brazil, I learned that their worries are different from that ofWal I Street. They are worried that if Lula becomes president, two groups ofpeople will think that it is open season on private property-1) the "Sem Teto" and 2) the "Sem Terra". The "Sem Teto" (Roofless) are a group composed of millions of destitute people who live in the large cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and they move in and take over without authorization any property that seems to be empty. Usually these properties are on the market to be sold or rented. After these people move into that property, it becomes a nightmare for the owner of the property to get them out. The "Sem Terra" (Landless) are another large group, which includes millions of destitute people who want agrarian reform in Brazil. They want a piece of land for themselves. These people move onto people's farms without authorization and again they become a nightmare for the owner of the property to get rid of them. Sometimes things get out of hand and there are armed clashes between farmers and "Sem Terra," with deadly outcomes. A Lula victory in October will signal to the "Sem Teto" and the "Sem Terra" that it is OK to invade other people's property and that they will get away with it. This is a serious issue in Brazil and very close to home for most Brazilians. Brazilians have a choice in the coming October election, and they should elect the president who will provide full protection to property owners, and they should not allow this nightmare to continue any further in Brazil.
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money leaving the United States for a safer haven. Brazil can become a major option and a safe haven for investments from the capitalist world. With only two months to the presidential elections in Brazil, up to this point a Lula victory seems almost certain. After trying to be elected president so many times, finally, Lula has the chance to achieve his goal. I believe that there is one thing in this election that is different than in past elections in which he participated. The difference that can put Mr. Lula over the top in this election is the deteriorating economic situation in the entire South American area, including: extreme poverty, despair, economic chaos, a fire sale of government assets (as in Argentina), and collapsing currencies. Final Suggestion
From this point on, the October election will become a horse race to the wire between only two candidates as the latest polls are showing—Mr. Lula with 33 percent ofthe votes and Mr. Ciro Gomes with 26 percent of the votes. If some of the other candidates who have no chance to win this election drop out of the race and put their support behind Mr. Gomes, then he will have a real chance to defeat Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October. I believe that between the candidates currently available for this election, Mr. Ciro Gomes will be the best choice to become the next president of Brazil. Mr. Gomes has been a mayor, and a governor of the state of Ceara. He served briefly as Brazil's Finance Minister in 1994. He has all the credentials necessary to become the next president of Brazil. It does not matter which candidate becomes the next president of Brazil. I just want to make one suggestion to the next Brazilian president, in case he needs economic advice from an American economist regarding economic policies which will help Brazil. I suggest that he contact Mr. Paul Krugman. He is an outstanding economist, and he would provide sound economic advice. Currently, Mr. Krugman is an economics professor at Princeton University in Ncw Jersey. Ricardo C. Amaral is an author and economist. He can be reached at amaralalumni.fdu.edu BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Rio's flip Side Our driver was from the favela and he drove the jeep with an ease that complimented the feeling of wind-blown freedom excluded when taking the bus. TEXT AND PICTURES: JENNIFER GRANT
Perched atop the Corcovado mo ntam, the famous Cristo Redentor, Ch ist the Redeemer, opens his arms to w come all who would come to Rio, aff ctionately known as the Cidade Mara lhosa, meaning Marvelous City. All o er the world people have accepted this in tation, including poor rural Brazili s, from other parts of the county, who in hope of helping themselves to the e ployment opportunities and finan ial benefits of urban life have migrated or more than a hundred years, well bef re the statue's appearance in the 1930's to the outskirts of Rio's wealthier distri ts. There, on the hillsides, they have b i It their own settlements, known as fave, s, where one out of five Cariocas, the t nri for Rio's residents, currently dwells. The largest ofthefavelas, or in Am can jargon, slums, covers 722,500 me of hilly area south of the wealthy subu of1panema and Leblon, where Tom Jo
composed his well-known musical contribution, `Girl from Ipanema.' and east of Sao Conrado. Known as Favela da Rocinha, this ghetto currently boasts 160 thousand inhabitants who are mostly Afro-Brazilian and who lack the education and training needed to develop their metropolitan occupational skills. Tired of tours which too often turned out to be a scenic chance to shop and eat, I decided to book something more exciting and venture into this drug-infested territory by jeep through Jeep Tours (01 I 55-21-3890-9336 or www.jeeptour. com.br whose colorful flyer promised "knowing with us what you could not know alone." Being that tour operators find it more efficient to limit their pick-up territory to the tourist area of Copacabana and other districts south of the tunnel separating them from the older areas of Rio, including Flamengo where I was staying, I was required to utilize the local bus system to meet up with the expedition staff in Leme. After some miscommunication at Le Meridien Hotel, our rendezvous spot, I finally hooked up with my khaki-clad effervescent guide, Barbara, fifty minutes behind schedule. Aware that inefficiency is a customary part of daily life in Brazil, she quickly forgave my tardiness, and while simultaneously conversing excitedly into her walkie-talkie, hustled me out the lobby door. As we clamored into the jeep, I learned that a few years previously, Barbara had decided to exchange the Italian for the supposedly less cumbersome Brazilian bureaucracy. Soon after arriving, she had discovered that she had a special heart for underprivileged children and gaveup her R$600 apartment in a safer region ofthe city to move to thefavela where she currently pays half that amount. I asked her if it was difficult to form relationships in Rocinha, since strangers, particularly tourists are strongly warned not to enter the area alone. She replied that it had taken time to gain the trust of the residents, but since she was vivacious and open, also a somewhat penniless migrant, and used whatever money stretched beyond her basic expenses to help the neighboring children, the community had eventually embraced her. Barbara also mentioned that American tourism in Rio had dropped significantly since 9/11. This was unfortunate, since the continually declining Brazilian monetary unit, the real, priced at R$2.50U.S. $1.00 in May 2002, made it an ideal time to visit. In fact, the price of the tour came out to a mere $45.00, payable in American currency or an equivalent sum 27
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2062
in reais. Our driver likewise was from the favela and communicated in short local language phrases with a smile, unlike Barbara who spoke Portuguese (Brazil's language), Italian, English and French. He drove the jeep with an ease for weaving in and out of traffic which complimented the feeling of wind-blown freedom excluded when motoring by tour bus. The rest of our group was waiting outside their Copacabana hotel, so we promptly set off for the outskirts of the beach area and began the climb into the hills. We passed a large delivery truck in which the driver and his passenger waved and merrily shouted obscene greetings in Portuguese to Barbara who returned them with blown kisses as our transport scooted ahead. While our leader accommodated my request to forego English, addressing me in the Brazilian language, most of the narrative was given in French, benefiting the majority of the participants. As we ascended further up the slope our escort pointed out the disparity between Rocinha approaching on our left, where most residents earn under R$80 monthly, and the American school on our right, where ex-patriots and wealthy Brazilians, wishing their children to have the advantage of a bi-cultural education, shell-out R$800 each 30 days. Nannies sat in expensive cars waiting at the curb by the school, while motor scooters and noisy city buses continued the ascent to reach life's other contingent. Our first stop was philanthropically motivated. Favela youngsters greeted us at the top of the hill where, after hugging Barbara, they offered self-painted scenes on stretched canvas for R$25-$45. Stray dogs romped at our feet as the young entrepreneurs, some eager and some timid, showed us their wares. Having long ago learned not to carry any amount of cash you wouldn't wish to lose, I decided to forego the artwork, but distributed real notes to each of the nine sales children. Perceiving that I spoke Portuguese, the kids shyly began to ask me questions regarding the date of my birthday, where I was from, etc. We then set off up the hill with two of the junior high age boys accompanying us. One offered to carry the bag of books I had bought earlier, and after taking my sack with one hand, offered his other for me to hold. We trudged past cement walls protecting the hillsides on which was perched plaster housing roofed with long metal sheets. Signs were painted on the walls advertising the location of local businesses. Trash littered the dirt slopes. Above ground drainage pipes, the circumference of a garden hose, draped 28
down the earth slope to end at a spout encased in cinder blocks which emptied the contents onto the same road which we were surmounting. We passed a series of local businesses cut out of the cement bank. A group ofmales lounged in the doorway of a motorcycle repair shop. It appeared to be one of the local congregating places as the men sat drinking from cans of beer, smoking, and 'hangingout'. Next door, a local merchant tried to sweep the dust away from her doorway. Children freely meandered about. Barbara informed us that few of them attend school, even though the government currently encourages public education through the offer ofa bolsa escola (scholarship), which pays R$45 per child or a maximum of $R90 per family. Upon reaching a narrow alleyway with uneven and varying level stone steps cut in yet another rise, we began to make our way to the top, pressing our hands against the walls to detect our route. Near the summit, we entered into a narrow hall off of which was the kitchen of a local inn (penscio). Four sweating women were crowded into a space approximately 8ft by 12ft, cooking over a small four burner stove. The pot appeared to contain feijoada, the national Brazilian dish. We scrambled up another level, passing the similar sized dining room, where about eight guests awaited their meal seated at a wooden picnic table. Upon reaching one of the few brick lined roofs, we paused to take-in the immense spread of the slum. The children continued to converse with me. My helper told me how he looked forward to celebrating his 14" birthday with his younger sisters whom he helped to support with his artwork. He did not know where California was, but would like to visit. He opened the top of a blue plastic vat and showed me that it contained collected rainwater used to supply the plumbing-lesspensdo. Since there was a serious dengue epidemic in the city, the vats had to be watched carefully for any presence of the virus carrying mosquitoes who breed in open pools of fresh water. This also necessitated the constant sweeping of rainwater, along with the slidden mud, from the narrow alleyways which comprised the backyards of Rocinha's residences. 'My child' grasped my hand protectively as we began our descent and wove through the steep pathways toward the lower confines of the favela. We passed through an inhabited section where, though I never witnessed them, our guide `eeked' at the sight of rats. She paused briefly in an open doorway to exchange greetings with an inebriated man who sat on his uncovered mattress placed neatly in a corner near
the sink under his collection of magazine pictures exposing naked women constituting the sole decorations covering the walls. Clothes hung from the nails that held up some of the female images. The small concrete square contained no other furnishings or facilities. I had been reminded that many favela homes do not yet have access to sewage. Through another steep stair-lined alleyway, small hole size shops appeared •in the cement walls bordering the path. Our guide stopped at one to purchase a sweet-roll, while the kids used some of the money I had given them to acquire a similar treat. We rounded a corner in which middle-age men, grouped on a step, stripped casings from wire that they planned to take to the wealthier districts of Rio to resell. Barbara paused to scoop up an unhealthy looking female toddler, while her mother watched out of vacant eyes dimmed by some substance used to escape the realities of daily life. Finally, we began to hike down Gavea Road, which heads the main street of the commercial center. We passed colorful stands of barbequing meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, handmade clothing, and other simple retail commodities. After making our way around the square, we crossed a bridge over the highway. Our driver sat waiting in the jeep in front of the sole amateur soccer field in the area. As I was tipping 'my child' for helping me, I learned that and the majority of favela adolescents did not engage in sports due to the lack of organization and willing coaches. As the jeep sped back toward Leme, I realized I had seen a side of Rio which few people are exposed to. Though its images would haunt my sleep for weeks to come, I felt fortunate to have seen the Rio that many hear about, but so few ever come to know. The sphere ofCopacabana exists for the tourists. The world of the favela persists for many of Rio's inhabitants. If you want to experience the real Rio, it is one tour which shouldn't be overlooked nor ventured on your own. Jennifer Grant owes her love of Brazil to friends Jazon da Silva Santos, a Los Angeles resident formerly of Macei6, and Eduardo Borgerth of Niter6i. She is a free-lance journalist and public speaker who hopes her future will include foreign correspondence journalism and Christian missionary evangelism in Brazil along with discovering ways to facilitate better understanding between the people of Brazil and the United States. If you wish to contact her you can write in either English or Portuguese to siennigAvahoo.com BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
Petty Crime One day she took me to the public library where I stayed for a few months. I only left after reading practically everything I found. From psychiatry to quantum
physics.
From
Anaxagoras to Borges. GLAUCO ORTOLANO
Sim, querido leitor, faco isso a moda antiga, a moda de Machado de Assis que vivia dialogando corn suas "leitoras" em seus romances. Digo leitoras, porque homem que era homem ndo ha romance no seculo XIX. As belle lettres eram coisas do sexo fragil. Agora, ndo pense voce que quem vos fala nesse instante seja verdadeiramente o autor dessa farsa, dessa pantomimice porque nalo é. Esse al é um sonhador que vive no mundo do Kenzaburo Oe, do Noam Chomsky e outros da sua especie. Mas para que ele pudesse se comunicar corn esse mundo relativamente irreal, ele inventou a mim— Ulisses—urn simples antigo rebobinador de fitas de video que teve coragem urn dia de dizer adeus ao seu anagnosta eletronico. Talvez fosse melhor se eu lhe contasse antes urn pouco daminhahistoria para que voc'e entenda de onde é que eu estou vindo. Houve uma epoca que eu nao sabia que ja sabia ler. Me davam por mentecapto e me deixavam vegetando em casa o dia todo na companhia de uma empregada que tambem pouco se importava corn o que se passava no meu mundo. Talvez, ndo fosse tanto negligencia como incapacidade de compreender que urn alienado ndo é necessariamente urn idiota. Mas o que eu podia fazer? Eu tinha sido criado ass im, acreditando que fosse urn imprestavel. E isso, desde que me del por gente. Quando menino, creio que assisti centenas de vezes a cada uma daquelas fitas de desenho an imado que aparecia la em casa. Fantasia, A Pequena Sereia, A Bela e a Fera e tantas e tantas outras. Era so eu comecar a ficar urn pouco motivado dentro do nosso tedioso apartamento, BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
que logo me colocavam diante do televisor para eu acalmar os &limos e perder toda e qualquer ambled() da vida. Ndo existe nada melhor no mundo para Ihe roubar a ambiedo do que um daqueles televisores de telas enormes, que tornam as cenas maiores que a pr6pria vida. Eu sei muito bem disso porque cresci corn um desses anagnostas particulares. Hoje eu sei o quanto ele me roubou completamente de qualquer desejo de auto realizacdo. JA na adolescencia me apareceu urn substituto a altura—o computador. Já entao, eu passava metade do meu tempo em frente ao televisor e a outra metade em frente ao computador jogando algum videogame que supostamente um dia iria desenvolver a minha coordenacdo psicomotora. Pelo menos era assim que meus pais racionalizavam a substituicdo do tempo que eles deviam estar passando corn igo pelo tempo que eu passava diante dos aparelhos de comunicacdo. Meus pais trabalhavam fora e so chegavam bem tarde da nuite. Ambos profissionais muito ocupados corn suas carreiras, o bonus do fim-de-ano, a promocdo, o carro importado e essas coisas tdo importantes no mundo de hoje. Esta se identificando corn igo? Entdo conte pra mim... quantas vezes voce chegou a assistir A Bela e a Fera? SO isso? Pois eu devo ter asssistido umas quinhentas vezes, pelo menos. Eu assistia e rebobinava, assisitia e rebobinava, assistia e rebobinava. Assim era o meu dia, minha semana, minha vida toda. Eu naO deixava de me hipnotizar nem mesmo quando ia comer. Havia urn video cassete e um televisor em cada comodo do apartamento. Era cafe da manhd, almoco e jantar corn sabor de Bela e a Fera. Eu sabia todas as falas de cor e salteado. Ainda sei. E ndo é pra menos, nao é? Linguagem insidiosa aquela. Voce se lembra? Aguns anosmais tarde me apareceram aqueles filmes corn tantos efeitos especiais que a vida real perdia todo e qualquer sentido. Já era impossivel discernir o real da fantasia. George Lucas era o meu deus. Seus filmes cram inebriativos e passei a precisar de uma dose cada vez mais forte para poder agilentar as idiossincrasias da minha realidade tdo mundana e tdo distante daquelas galaxias infinitas. E foi essa minha passividade diante do televisor que gerou em mim uma anacroasia aguda, mas que era vista pelos meus pais como uma coisa perfeitamente normal. Eles achavam que urn dia eu desenvolveria a minha inteligencia emocional, o que para eles era muito mais importante. Já ouviu falar dessa teoria, ndo é? Pois entdo... 29
Mas como eu estava dizendo, corn o advento do computador e da Internet, apesar da comunicacao entre as pessoas ter ficado muitomais rapida, voce alguma vez ja parou para pensar que os e-mails chegam cada vez mais resumidos? Parece que as pessoas tern uma certa aversdo palavra escrita. Todos se dizem sempre muito ocupados e mandamrecados curtos sem muito conteudo. Isso para no se falar daqueles que preferem enviar somente mensagens de correntes corn citaceies de algum Pablo Neruda. Sim, porque aqueles que no tern nada a dizer, sempre citam os grandes pensadores. As palavras dos grandes do passado se tornam as palavras do mediocre do presente. Uma grande ironia, voce no acha? Ora, mas me perdoe se fico fugindo da minha histOria. Pessima mania essa minha de ficar filosofando. Mas entao, como eu dizia, foi s6 depois que se desenvolveu em mim a tal anacroasia que eu resolvi dar urn basta aquela minha existencia videota. Urn dia, depois de ter assistido 0 Imperio Contra Ataca pela terceira vezconsecutiva, tive o impeto de fazer algo que eu jamais havia tido coragem antes—abrir a persiana do meu quarto e atirar o video cassete pela janela. E foi para o meu grande espanto que me dei conta que havia uma realidade multidemensional me esperando la fora. Era algo que eu jamais tinha imaginado. Foi uma grande emocao poder sentir os raios de sol sobre a minha pele de Nosferato; sentir o cheiro da cidade ao entardecer; ver os helicOpteros sobrevoando aquele universo todo a ser explorado. Como por milagre, uma luz de esperanca me acalentou por dentro e fez corn que eu me dirigisse imediatamente ate a sala-deestar onde encontrei a chave da porta de entrada do apartamento esquecida na fechadura pela empregada distraida. Girei a chave vagarosamente para que a empregada no se desse conta do que eu estava prestes a fazer. Sai nas pontas dos pes e sO entdo dei-me conta de que havia au i uma outra porta—a do elevador. Ele encontrava-se parado no nosso andar. Entrei e apertei o botdo do elevador como tinha aprendido nos fumes. Desci e fugi. Nunca mais voltei. Isso mesmo... NUNCA MA IS voltei para aquela masmorra onde fiquei preso durante toda a minha infancia e adolescencia. Mal podia me conter de tanta alegria. Agora eu era urn ser livre a descobrir o significado da existencia. Dormi embaixo dos elevados em caixas de papelao. Foi la que descobri o sexo e gostei. Passei frio e fome. Comi 30
dos restos das feiras livres. Banhavame na praia. Sempre que me permitiam, ajudava os feirantes a montar as barracas. Corn isso ganhava urn troco que me ajudava a sobreviver de forma mais digna. Fiquei feliz quando pude comprar escova e pasta de dentes, lamina e creme de barbear. Nao precisava de muito mais do que aquilo para ser feliz. Mais tarde, aprendi que já sabia ler e escrever corn Dona Nely, uma professora aposentada que se encantou comigo e me levou urn dia para sua casa. Ela dizia que eu era superdotado. Aprendia tudo muito rapid() e ha numa velocidade incrivel. Um belo dia ela me levou a biblioteca municipal onde permaneci por alguns meses. SO sal depois que jatinha lido praticamente tudo que encontrei por Ia. De psiquiatria a fisica quantica. De Anaxagoras a Borges. Em outra ocasiao, encontrei urn saxofone abandonado num ferro velho. Consegui dar-lhe vida. Para isso, tive que aprender sozinho a tocar jazz e passei entao a improvisar nas saidas do metro. As pessoas paravam e ficavam ouvindo eu tocar Mingus, Deodato e as minhas prOprias composicOes. Eu e ele She was from an Italian family gostavamos da atencao e ficavamos la, sempre juntos, tocando por horas like mine. She had mysterious e horas a fio ate a calada da eyes that would light up in my noite.Tinha encontrado minha verdadeira vocacao na vida. Deu ate presence, Her traits were fine and parajuntar umapequena fortunacom her lips...ah, they were an as gorjetas dos transeuntes que apliquei e multipliquei corn os invitation to kiss, tramites na Bolsa. Fiquei milionario. Essa foi a parte mais facil. Corn o GLAUCO ORTOLANO dinheiro pude estudar alopatia e, no momento, estou me dedicando ao (para os meus sobrinhos Kakoe Dudu) desenvolvimento de uma droga que devera ajudar na imunizacao contra I Viviamos num clima de euforia no O virus da Aids. Projeto deveras Brasil de 72. Nao sei bem dizer o porque, ambicioso. Nas horas livres cornja que viviamos no apogeu de uma ponho jazz, leio ou escrevo I ivros de ditadura militar que já tinha decepado a ornitologia. Ah, sim, casei-me corn cabeca de toda uma geracao de futuros Penelope. Ela teve uma infancia agnOsticos. Talvez toda aquela euforia semelhante minha.Temosmuito enuI fosse fruto da conquista do Tri no Mexico comum, inclusive uma filha de seis ern 70, o que nos fazia supor que o pais ,estava no caminho certo. Achavamos anos chamada Mariana. E outra ainda que viV iamos num periodo de chatnada Giovana que esta a cami, prosperidade econOmica para o pais. Uma nho. Vez por outra, passo por uma ilusao que amenizava a dor lancinante da locadora e apanho 0 Imperio Contra • ,cabeca que já tinha sido decepada. Meu Ataca so para me recordar daquele pai dizia que corn os militares no poder, dia glorioso em que assassinei o rneu minha geracao perderi a somente a anagnosta atirando-o pela janela do consciencia politica, mas já corn os meu quarto e fugi para buscar minha comunistas, alem da consciencia, liberdade e fel icidade. Confesso que perderiamos ainda os testiculos. E apesar foi urn crimeperfeito. Voce nao acha? ,dos meus poucos 13 anos, eu já gostava dos meus testiculos e nao me simpatizei
onder Bays
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
muito corn a causa comunista. Basta dizer sabia das torturas de presos politicos que anterior que eu já tinha toda copiada. que ideologicamente nos encontravamos aconteciam no DOPS. Mas tambem, eu Nossos bracos se tocavam, nossos olhos num cul-de-sac. Mas a grande verdade é sO tinha 13 anos, sem consciencia e corn se encontravam e se incendiavam. As que quando se tern 13 anos, corn ditadura dois testiculos intactos. Como podia sa- labaredas eram enormes. Disfarcavamos ou ndo, cul-de-sac ou ndo, tudo é euforia ber daquelas coisas? Se soubesse, talvez e olhavamos para o quadro ou perguntae confess° que estava curtindo muito eu sentisse menos orgulho. Mas nao sabia. vamos algo para o colega ao lado. No tudo aquilo. Sobretudo porque, eu ainda Os estudantes mais velhos do colegial entanto, nossos corpos continuavam a se viviam falando baixo pelos corredores e comunicar muito mais radicalmente. Os tinha os meus testiculos. olhando de soslaio como que corn medo corpos ndo mentem como a gente. Ao Minha familia acabava de mudar-se para Ribeirao Preto, no interior de Sdo da pr6pria sombra. Ndo podia entender mesmo tempo que falavamos corn os Paulo—cidade de born nivel economic° muito o porque de tudo aquilo. Talvez colegas, nossas pernas se rocavam como que se enriqueceu durante a era aurea do porque tivesse somente 13 anos. Talvez que sem querer. Nossas mdos tambem se café. Isso deu assim urn ar de belle époque fosse melhor assim. Um dia ouvi urn tocavam de propOsito quando os dois entdo Avenida 9 de Julho, decorada deles contando que um estudante havia iam em busca da mesma caneta que vivia corn mansOes suntuosas construidas bem se suicidado numa cela de uma prisao la caindo no chat). Eu jurava que podia ficar antes da quebra da bolsa de Nova Iorque. em Sdo Paulo. Dumont tambem veio a se eternamete sentado al i ao seu lado, Depois da quebra, alguns moradores a suicidar num banheiro de quarto-de-ho-1 respirando aquele perfume do frescor dos anos. Era simplesmente adoravel apelidaram de "Avenida dos Falidos de tel no Guaruja. Isso aconteceu em 32 poder sentir aquela nova sensacdo. Eu jã 29," o que nao era era muito justo pois durante a ditadura Vargas, exatament estavatotalmente apaixonado e ndo sabia. quarenta anos antes da morte daquel alem do café, fez-se ainda muito dinheiro Quando se tern 13 anos, ndo se sabe corn a cana-de-acncar e a laranja. Os estudante. Desde entdo eu sempre m bem o que é a paixdo. SO sei que eu já nao latifundiarios locais oravam fervorasa- perguntei porque é que os sonhadore conseguia ouvir mais ninguem. As mente para que houvesse geadana Florida sempre preferem a morte a ditadura. Hoj todos os anos. Disso me lembro bem. De acho que compreendo, mas naqueles temf recomendacOes feitas por minha nide qualquer forma, Ribeirao Preto se mantem pos eu ndo gostava de me distrair cons eram simplesmente ignoradas e as aulas se restringiam aos leves toques do nosso ainda viva em minha memoria porque foi aqueles fatos. Eu preferia me envereda corpo e mais nada. A geografia agora era pel as histOrias de Dumont, sempr al e entdo que aconteceu o maior milagre bem outra. SO hoje eu posso avaliar como do mundo. Urn milagre muito pessoal acompanhado da sua grande paixdo d a natureza é realmente sabia. Ela realca a que you contar sem muita economia de juventude, "la cubanita"—ela que entro belezafeminina que por suavez embevece para a historia por ser a primeira mulhe detalhes. (e as vezes enlouquece) os homens e tudo Matriculei-me no Colegio Santos a voar num objeto mais pesado do que isso, simplesmente, para conseguir a Dumont, conhecido na epoca como um ar. Isso sim era gostoso de ler. As paixoe preservacdo da espec ie. Muito sabia. dos melhores colegios de pequena as aventuras. Quando so se tern 13 ano E foi depois de urn dia de muitos burguesia da cidade. Contava corn urn o mais importante é sonhar corn a leves toques, que eu tive o melhor sonho born curriculo escolar, bons professores aventuras e ndo corn os suicidios. de toda a minha vida. E ndo foi um sonho Jã antes do termino do primeir e boas equipes de esporte. Naquela epoca, minhas prioridades eram bem outras. semestre, passei a fazer parte da equip- de uma grande aventura sexual, como pode supor o leitor, mas simplesmente o Queria sO ver o Brasil ganhar novamente de basquete e do coral da escola. Na de urn beijo...um beijo tdo puro, que a Copa do Mundo, estudar num born tinha tempo para papo chinfrim d colegio e fazer parte da equipe de politica. Cabeca decepada, já viu, ne? II assim que os nossos labios se tocaram, basquete. Minha consciencia politica canto e o basquete eram as minhas major -s senti pela primeira vez jon-ar das minhas tinha ido para o beleleu. Rolou junto corn paixOes ate entdo. Ah, mas foi al que tu II II entranhas algo arrebatador que me levou a cabeca decepada da minha geracdo. mudou. E ndo foi que de repente, n •* aquele estado de total extase. F6ra como Felizmente ainda podia contar corn meus mais que de repente, como diria o uma tempestade corn muitos raios e testiculos que seriam pecas muito poetinha, me aparece uma aluna nova a reldrnpagos e chuva forte a molhar o meu importantes para o realizacao do milagre aula, transferida de uma outra cidad ? corpo, e ventos fortes a seca-lo calmaJuliana era o seu nome, e basta dizer q e mente ate o chegar do amanhecer quando prestes a acontecer. Recordo distintamente do meu desde o primeiro instante que n s por fim, ao olhar por debaixo das cobertas, primeiro dia de aula quando, ao subir as conhecemos ela já me provocava u a me descobri homem. E essa foi a melhor escadas do colegio, me deparei corn a sensacdo muito estranha. Era de famil a sensacdo do mundo da qual jamais me fotografia de Santos Dumont, cujos feitos italiana como a minha. Tinha uns olh s esquecerei. Eu, urn homem capaz de criar me enchiam de orgulho e ate me davam misteriosos que se iluminavam corn a outros seres semelhantes a mim. Que urn senso major de brasilidade. Para ser minha presenca. Seus tacos eram fino e maravilha! Na realidade, aquilo me fazia franco, ainda hoje tenho muito argulho seus labios... ah, seus labios eram urn sentir-me mais que um mero mortal. desse grande homem. Houve inclusive verdadeiro convite ao beijo. Carnudos, Agora sentia-me como urn verdadeiro urn semestre em que construi uma replica assim de dar gosto. Seu corpo era ainda deus capaz de criar outros a minha propria (ndo muito bem feita) do 14 Bis para uma meio desengoncado, bem adolescente imagem e semelhanca. Aqui lo era o feira do colegio. Coisas da adolescencia. assim corn as pernas finas mas bem maxim°. 0 milagre dos milagres. E aquilo Usei somente isopor e cola, barbantes e torneadas, o que eu admirav a sem foi acontecer justamente comigo que tive a cabeca decepada. Que jovem de sorte varas de bambu mas ate que saiu razoavel. disfarcar muito durante as aulas Sempre portador de uma imaginacdo educacdo fisica. Os seios retrateis. Era o eu era. Enquanto alguns se suicidavam muito ferti I, transportava-me facilmente eu olhar para ela para sentir aquele torpor ou eram suicidados, eu vivia um milagre de pura felicidade. para os tempos em que o jovem e rico muito estranho quetomavacontade mi Voltei a sonhar muitas vezes corn muito natural que dura a high Era um Dumont já contornava a Torre Eiffel corn as suas maquinas voadoras. Urn Jules horas, dias, meses, anos, uma vida inte ra Juliana. Era sempre urn grande prazer sonharcom a minha queridaJuliana. Certa Vernes tupiniquim. Que orgulho eu sentia parecia. Ja na sala-de-aula, sentava-me sem re vez, me lembro bem, voavamos no 14 de ser brasileiro! E que ignorante eu era da minha propria realidade. Pouco eu ao seu lado para copiar a materia do ia Bis bem acima da Torre Eiffel. Ela estava BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
31
toda linda, em trajes da belle époque da Avenida 9 de Julho, fazendo-me juras de amor em castelhano. Ainda posso ouvir a sua voz me dizendo: Ay, ml amor, Inas_ Inas arriba! Voavamos entre as nuvens prateadas corn nossos corpos sempre se tocando quando ela se aproximava para me sussun-ar coisas ao ouvido. Infelizmente ate hoje ndo sei o que cram essas coisas que ela me dizia. Talvez seja melhor assim. A natureza é sabia. Preserva a especie. E a cada beijo, eu podia sentir o meu lencol molhar-se corn o liquido que se arrefeceria por baixo do meu cobertor tdo quentinho. E em meio a tantas novas e excitantes sensacoes ainda me recordo dos rumores que circulavam pelas paredes do colegio sobre as torturas que se passavam no DOPS. 0 torpor provocado pelo gozo noturno me era interrompido corn as noticias sobre a acdo armada dos Tupamaros que os alunos de esquerda diziam que era covardemente acobertada pela propaganda politica da direita que nos enganava a todos fazendo-nos crer na quimera do "milagre" brasileiro. Mas apesar de tanta fabricacao de ambos os lados da guerra ideologica, nada daquilo me dizia absolutamente nada. 0 Unico milagre brasileiro que realmente me interessava era aquele que eu experimentava sempre que sonhava corn Juliana. Aquilo sim é
MO EY REMITTANCE ONLY $10
que era milagre. Agora imagine voce. Depois de tantos beijos sonhados e tantos lencOis manchados, ja julgava-me Intim dela, mas ainda, logicamente, muito longe de ser. Caminhavamos sempre juntos para casa fazendo todos os dias urn caminho cada vez mais longo. Conversavamos sobre muitos assuntos interessantes, inclusive poesia. Dec lamei-lhe todos os sonetos de Vinicius que eu aprendi sO para ela. Ela gostava de poesia e me encorajava a aprender outros poemas. Ela dizia que a poesia era algo muito masculino. Logo o meu repertOrio cresceu muito e cheguei ate a escrever uns poeminhas de amor, mas os do Vinicius cram tdo melhores que eu sempre voltava a eles. Um dia1 convidei-a para assistir Dona Flor eSeuki Dois Maridos que acabava de estrear no circuito. Ela agradeceu mas ndo foi. Achava os romances de Jorge Amado por demais sensuais. Perguntei-lhe se ela gostava das cancides de Chico Buarque. Pareciam-lhe muito da esquerda. Seu pal era oficial do exercito e ela apoiava a entrada do Geisel. Eu, por outro lado, achava que os militares deviam restaurar a democracia no pals, assistia Dona Flor sempre que podia, adorava Chico e tinha a certeza de que amanha seria outro dia. Logo percebemos que algo comecava a nos separar. Já nao iamos mais para casa
juntos. Os sonetos de Vinicius perdiam o efeito, mesmo porque ja ndo cram mais recitados corn paixdo. E corn isso, os beijos de verdade nunca vieram, e jamais chegamos a sobrevoar a Torre Eiffel juntos num 14 Bis reconstruido, mas apesar disso tudo, hoje guardo a certeza de que foram aqueles leves toques por baixo da carteira escolar que despertaram o homem em mim. E sempre que penso nisso me pergunto, se a minha querida Juliana tambem ndo se fez mulher durante um daqueles nossos voos noturnos no 14 Bis., These short stories whose names in the original were "0 Assassinato do Anagnosta" and "0 Despertar Que Pediu 14 Bis" were unpublished until now. Glauco Ortolan° is a poet, novelist, short fiction writer, translator, essayist and scholar. He is presently teaching Brazilian language, literature and culture at the University of Oklahoma where he also serves as contributing editor for the literary journal World Literature Today. He is the author of "Domingos Vera Cruz" (novel), "Son halidade" (short stories), Divinosou (poetry). He's been a member of the Asociacien lberoamericana de Escritores since 1996. He can be contacted at ortolanos(&,hotmail.com
1-888-7-BRASIL 1-888-727-2745 10- 655-9904 "Triariza@tropicaltournet 4170 Piedmont Ave., Oakland - CA 94511
32 BRAZZIL -AUGUST 2002
The Good Cause An organization of poor black women, descendants of slaves, overcomes formidable obstacles— including the animosity of the Church—in order to carry on the religious traditions of their ancestors. ANTONIO MORAES RIBEIRO AND J H. KENNEDY
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
The festival ofNossa Senhora da Boa Morte (Portuguese for Our Lady ofGood Death), one of the most significant religious traditions in Brazil, is nowadays considered a remarkable living document of the African experience in the New World. Begun approximately in the year 1821, this unique festival takes place in Cachoeira, a town located in the region known as the Reconcavo, a large fertile area on the coast of the country's northeastern state of Bahia. Every August people from far and wide converge on Cachoeira to join in the commemorations and festivities of Our Lady of Good Death. At the center of nightlong vigils, masses, solemn processions, and lively samba performances, is a closed lay sisterhood of black women, the lrmandade de Nossa Senhora da Boa Mode, which translates as the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death. "Good" in this context connotes the peaceful death of the Virgin Mary. Origins and Structure Through oral history, the origins of the sisterhood's activities can be traced back to slave quarters of the early nineteenth century where, at the end of a day's work, blacks often gathered to discuss abolition and pray for their fellow Africans who had died during the struggles for freedom. During these gatherings an appeal was commonly made to Nossa Senhora (the Virgin Mary) to put an end to slavery in Brazil. At these sessions, slaves vowed to commemorate annually the death and assumption of the Virgin. These gatherings gave birth to the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death, frequently referred to nowadays simply as the Sisterhood of Good Death. The sisterhood began as a loose association of freed black womenwho, among other activities, raised funds to purchase the freedom of slaves, carried out burials of their dead, and offered refuge to runaways. Since the abolition of slavery in 1888, generations of sisters have faithfully preserved the tradition ofthe annual religious commemorations in gratitude and reverence to their ancestors. Because of their faith, these women have kept alive ancient traditions along with elements of an African belief system despite adverse circumstances of slavery and impoverishment. The sisterhood is made up exclusively of women who are recognized descendants of slaves. The criteria for acceptance into the group are very stringent, involving a three-year initiation and preparation phase during which candi33
dates learn traditional ceremonies and rituals. Although in the past membership has included as many as 200, today the group numbers only about thirty women. Most are relatively poor and elderly; ages within the group range from fifty to ninety years. In spite of limited financial resources, the sisterhood always sees that each of its members is provided a proper and decent funeral. Within the hierarchical structure of the sisterhood, the highest position, perpetual judge, is permanent and is reserved for the eldest sister. The general administration of the group is carried out by four sisters chosen annually to fill the positions of attorney general, purveyor, treasurer, and secretary. It is the attorney general, however, who is directly responsible for organizing the festival and coordinating all the rituals, religious and secular. Interestingly, it is believed that once every seven years the Virgin herself assumes the responsibility of directing the ceremonies and does so through the person of the perpetual judge. The sisters, in addition to being Roman Catholic, are also active members of various centers of the Afro-Brazilian religion known as Candomble. This belief system has its roots in the early days of colonialism, when Portuguese masters forbade African slaves to practice their ancestral religion. Forced to convert to Catholicism, the slaves did not abandon their deities, but secretly worshipped them in the guise ofCatholic saints. The resulting religion, Candomble, has transcended racial lines and is today widely practiced throughout Bahia as well as in other regions of Brazil. Annual Festival The Our Lady of Good Death Festival is held annually in mid-August and lasts five days. It almost always includes August 15th, the Catholic holy day of the Assumption. The commemorations are richly unique in all aspects, from the clothing and jewelry the women wear at each stage of the festival to the traditional meals offered at the headquarters of the sisterhood. Even the samba performance, which personalizes the non-reli-
34
gious part of the activities, involves an ancient form of the dance not often performed in other regions of the country. Although the festival of Our Lady of Good Death is primarily a Catholic celebration, the knowledgeable observer will discern remarkable symbolism linked directly to Candomble traditions. As in Candomble, before the festival begins the participants carry out a purification ceremony, thus cleansing the body and the locale. Another important pre-festival activity takes place on the second Saturday of August: members of the sisterhood, dressed in the traditional, brightly colored Bahian attire (a full long print skirt, white blouse, and turban) and carrying red velvet sacks, go out into the streets to solicit donations for the festival. The following day, the group de-, cides which members will form its new administration. Until the recent past, the decision was made by elections in which votes, following ancient tradition, were cast with kernels ofcorn and black beans. Nowadays, the selection of the administration is decided by consensus. The festival itself officially begins on Thursday, the day when the members of the sisterhood make their confessions. On Friday evening the sisters, each carrying a candle on a five-foot long wooden staff, begin the first phase of the festival. This represents the death of the Virgin and symbolically the death of their ancestors during slavery. For this ceremony each participant is attired completely in white: a full, white lace-trimmed overblouse, a billowy white skirt, a lace shawl folded and draped over one shoulder, a cotton turban, and leather lowheeled mules. A mass of thanksgiving in homage to deceased sisters is celebrated followed by a symbolic funeral procession in which the sisters carry an eighteenth-century replica of the Virgin lying peacefully in death and covered by a mantle of white lace. After a vigil in the manner of a symbolic wake, the sisters offer a late night repast called the White Supper. This meal comprised of bread, wine, fish, rice, black-eyed peas, and salads, follows an African tradition of not eating meat on Friday, the day consecrated to the Afro-Brazilian deity, Oxala, considered to be father of all deities and creator of the universe. Worthy of note here is the fact that each Afro-Brazilian deity is traditionally associated with a color, and that of Oxala is reflected in his clothing, which is always white. On Saturday evening, the next stage of the festival includes the celebration of a mass followed by a symbolic burial
procession. This ceremony symbolizes not only the death of the Virgin but also the genocide of female victims of slavery, which began in Brazil in the middle ofthe 16th century. As a sign of mournful respect, the sisters at this juncture wear no jewelry, but do don elegant attire. Each wears a generous full black skirt, an embroidered overblouse of white lace, a black velvet shawl folded and draped over one shoulder, and a white sash. The head is covered by a large white cotton scarf that, fastened under the chin and concealing both the hair and the neck, is quite similar to the head coverings worn by women in a number of Muslim countries. Again carrying their candlesticks, the sisters attend a solemn mass and receive communion. Afterwards the replica of the entombed Virgin is carried by the sisterhood through the streets in a funeral procession accompanied by a marching band and the townspeople. The culminating events of the Boa Morte Festival take place on Sunday, beginning with a morning mass in commemoration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Unlike the solemn events up to this point, the activities of Sunday and the following days are decidedly festive. The sisters wear the same elegant attire of the previous day, Saturday, though with certain significant differences. Instead of the scarf, the white turban used on Friday is worn again. Also, the red satin lining of their black shawls, not visible on Saturday, is now turned outward, thus lending a joyful flair to the sisterhood's overall stately appearance. Here links to the Afro-Brazilian deities, the Orixas, are evident. Red, said to symbolize life and happiness, is also the color traditionally associated with the two Orixas: Omulu, who is the force of diseases, and lansan, who controls wind and storms. Moreover, in contrast to their lack of jewelry on the previous day, on Sunday the sisters wear special bangles and beaded necklaces honoring Oxum, the deity correlated with the Virgin. It is interesting to note here that the gala attire of this day is the same one in which each sister will eventually be buried. At the end of the mass, the sisterhood leads a procession slowly through the major streets ofCachoeira. A nineteenthcentury statue of the Virgin, known as Our Lady of Glory, standing atop a float, is hand carried along the procession route and is accompanied by the town's brass band and the general population. As this statue representing the glory BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
of the Assumption passes, spontaneous applause can be heard from onlookers while others light festive fireworks. When the sisters finally arrive at their headquarters, they offer a sumptuous luncheon to the public. It is at this point that the non-religious and very popular phase of the festival begins, and a contagious exuberance and joy pervade the atmosphere. Shortly after changing into the traditional Bahian attire—a loose flowing white blouse over a voluminous colorful skirt, and a white cotton turban—the sisters dance the samba-de-roda, an ancient dance of African origin performed in a circle to the rhythm of hand-clapping. From this point until Tuesday morning, the population ofCachoeira together with many tourists enjoys lively outdoor festivities that include live music and a variety oftypical savory Bahian fare sold by street vendors. The final phase of the festival begins on Tuesday morning and draws the cornmemorations to a close. The street party ends, and the sisters proceed to carry out secret AfroBrazilian religious ceremonies to pay homage to the ancestors and show gratitude to the Orixas for the success of the festival. On Wednesday, the day of lansan, the members of the sisterhood bring the festival to an end. Following Candomble tradition, they place offerings of flowers and the remaining foods ofthe festival in the nearby Paraguacu River. Conflict with the Church Because their status as an official sisterhood within the Church was never formalized and because of their strong African-based religious beliefs, the sisters have had a rather bumpy relationship with Church hierarchy in recent years. Strained relations with the clergy came to a head toward the end of the millennium, when the sisterhood became engaged in an unpleasant legal struggle with the Catholic Church. The litigation, begun in 1989, stemmed from the Church's confiscation ofthe sisterhood's jewelry and eighteenthand nineteenth-century religious statues that had been stored for safekeeping in the Cathedral in Cachoeira. The sisterBRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
hood reacted by mobilizing political! and, together with the city's populatio the Black Movement (an Afro-Braziliati activist group), artists, and Carnaval associations, proceeded to conduct prdtests in Cachoeira. Protests were also carried out in thle state capital of Salvador to demonstrate general outrage against the attitude and actions of the Church. As a result of the sisterhood's legal defense in Cachoeira, the city's court obliged the parish priest to return all of the group's property that had been seized by the Church. DissatiSfied with the court's decision, the priest entered an appeal in a higher court in t e state capital. At this juncture, high churc authorities put pressu e on the sisterhood withdraw its lawsuit, a move requested pe sonally by one f Brazil's highest ranling cardinals—Doii Lucas Moreira Neve the mulatto archbish p of Salvador—in a meeting with the si ters in Cachoeira. th y Because would not back dow on adjourning t e meeting, the cardin 1 declared the doors f the Church closed o the sisterhood. T e prelate apparently believed that this o der, which deprived the sisters of both a church and a priest, would cause t e festival to fall into disrepute in the ey s of the conservative parishioners. A nu ber of years later, the State Supre e Court upheld the decision made n Cachoeira, thus supporting t e sisterhood's case. Nevertheless, as a r sult'of the cardinal's decision, from 1990 to 1998 the religious ceremonies of Our Lady of Good Death were carried out in a number oflocations without the participation of Roman Catholic priests. Seeing the deplorable situation of the sisterhood during the years of litigation, and moved by the group's lack of an appropriate venue to conduct its celebrations, a group of African American tourists purchased a large run-down building in Cachoeira and donated it to the group. Subsequently, the city government expropriated an adjacent dilapidated structure and donated it to the sisters. Later a third building was donated by a member of the community. It was during these years that the plight of the sisters Was brought to national attention by the renowned novelist Jorge Amado, author of
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon. With an article published in two highly reputable newspapers, A Tarde, from Salvador, Bahia and Folha de Sao Paulo, which enjoys a nationwide readership, Amado stressed the cultural significance of the sisterhood and the need to provide the group with an appropriate facility for its activities. The government of the State of Bahia soon underwrote the restoration of the sisterhood's three buildings, which comprise an entire city block. While their basic architectural designs were maintained, the structures were successfully adapted to serve as the group's chapel and headquarters. The grand opening of the refurbished buildings took place in 1995, and from that time until the festival of 1999 all religious ceremonies were conducted there by the sisters themselves because ofthe ban placed by the Catholic Church. The arrival of Dom Geraldo Majella Agnelo, the new cardinal, in 1998 signaled the beginning of a more favorable attitude on the part ofthe Church towards the sisterhood. By the following year reconciliation was in effect, and during the festival of 1999, Roman Catholic priests celebrated masses in the sisterhood's chapel. The third day of the festival that year was marked by the presence of the auxiliary bishop of Salvador, who, on behalf of the Church, publicly asked the sisters' forgiveness for the unpleasant events of the previous ten years. Thus, a major chapter came to a successful end in the arduous saga of a group of poor but very proud black women who, by standing firm in the face of formidable obstacles that included the animosity of church authorities, have successfully maintained their cultural legacy—the religious traditions of their ancestors. Antonio Moraes Ribeiro is with Bahia's state travel authority Bahiatursa in Salvador, and divides his time between that city and his hometown of Cachoeira. Since the 1970s Moraes has been instrumental in promoting support for the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death and the group's annual festival. He can be contacted at antmoraes(&uol.com.br J. H. Kennedy, a former resident of Sao Paulo, currently works for the Office of Bilingual Education of the District of Columbia Public Schools. He can be reached at esI202@hotmail.com
35
Chorar, vai me cobrir E me ninar
Chico Buarque, Meus Caros Amigos, originally released in 1976, Polygram, Distributed by Musicrama, Available in most stores
Life in Brazil in 1976 was difficult. For the previous 12 years, the country had been going through a harsh military dictatorship that had all but annihilated their opponents either by sending them off to exile (current president Fernando Henrique Cardoso was one of them) or to dungeons (to say the least) from where few escaped. The media was heavily censored. Newspapers, magazines and the general media had to submit their articles to the official censors before they were released to the public. More than once, classic poetry was printed on the front pages of 0 Estado de S. Paulo (Brazil's equivalent to The New York Times) as replacements to articles that had been forcefully pulled in the last minute. It was in that political climate that Chico Buarque, then already a legend of Brazil's music, released Meus Caros Amigos, which is considered by many one of the best works of his career. Buarque was known for his criticism towards the military government. However, being aware that he could not simply voice his opposition in his lyrics— some of h is songs had been banned by the government—he relied on clever wordplay that escaped censors' scrutiny, but was clearly understood by his fans. Caetano Veloso and other composers did the same. One example of his clever wordplay is "Voce Vai Me Seguir" (You Will Follow Me), in which Buarque hid the message in a song seemingly about a woman:
fp
Voce Vai Me Seguir Chico Buarque/ Rui Guerra
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411M 36
Voce vai me seguir Aonde quer que eu vá Voce vai me servir, Voce vai se curvar Voce vai resistir Mas vai se acostumar Voce vai me agredir Voce vai me adorar Voce vai me sorrir Voce vai se enfeitar E vem me seduzir Me possuir, me infernizar Voce vai me trair Voce vem me beijar Voce vai me cegar E eu you consentir Enfim me apunhalar Voce vai me velar
You Will Follow Me
The Finest Hour Francisco Buarque de Hollanda relied on clever wordplay that escaped censors' scrutiny, but was clearly understood by his fans ERNEST BARTELDES
You will follow me Everywhere I go You will serve me You will curve yourself You will resist But will get used to it You will hurt me You will adore me You will smile at me You will make yourself attractive You will seduce me You will possess me, harass me You will betray me You come to kiss me You will blind me And I will consent You're going to stab me You will be at my wake You will cry and cover me And sing me to sleep • The best political statement, however, is on "Meu Caro Amigo" (My Dear Friend), in which Chico (with partner Francis Hime, who also plays piano in several tracks of the album), sends a friendly letter to a friend—obviously someone living in exile at the time. An excerpt follows: Meu caro amigo me perdoe, por favor Se eu nao lhe faco uma visita Mas como agora apareceu um portador Mando noticias nessa fita Aqui na terra Tao jogando futebol Tern muito samba, muito choro e rock'n' roll Uns dias chove, noutros dias bate sol Mas o que eu quero e lhe dizer que a coisa aqui td preta Muita mutreta pra levar a situacao Que a gente vai levando de teimoso e de pirraca E a gente vai tomando, que tambe sem a cachaca Ninguem segura esse rojao My dear friend forgive me please If I can't pay you a visit But since I found someone to take a message I send you news on this tape Back at home they are playing soccer There's much samba, choro* and rock and roll It's sunny some days, others there's rain BRAZZIL -AUGUST 2002
But I have to tell you that things aren't too good A lot of ways to carry on with the situation And we go on by being stubborn and out of spite And we go on drinking, for without cachaca** No one can take it "Meus Caros Amigos," is however, not only about politics, but also great music and lyrics. One ofmy favorite tracks is `Mulheres de Atenas" (Women from Athens) in which the author talks about the conformist lives of the women who lived in the Old Age—maybe an unclear statement for Brazilian women. The melody is also beautiful, especially with maestro Luis Claudio Ramos' string arrangement during the bridge—somethingthat comes completely unexpected to the listener. Another great moment is the opening track, "0 Que Sera" (What Is It), which features a duet with another Brazilian legend, Milton Nascimento, who cowrote several songs with Buarque, but not this one. The song was on the soundtrack of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, which was released to mixed reviews in the U.S.
in the late seventies, after becoming t e biggest-grossing film in Brazilian b x office history (it lost its place to Titan 'c in 1997). The American movie-goi g public, however, didn't get the humor n the story Chico wrote several songs from a woman's point of view, which wou d later be recorded by divas such as G I Costa and Maria Bethania. In this albu "Olhos nos Olhos" (Eyes to Eyes) tel s the story of a woman who, after bei g dumped, swears •that when her lov r maybe sees her again, she will be back n her feet, and wonders if he will sta d seeing her happy without him. Meus Caros Amigos has definite stood the test of time after 26 years, a if you must only have one of Chi 'o Buarque's albums, this is the one to hav although my wife prefers 1974's Sin 'l Fechado. Although the political me sages might seem a bit outdated—the e hasn't been anyone in political exile fro the country since 1979—the albu sounds just as new, since Chico's samb s are timeless, as are his other melodies * a variation to samba **Brazil's national drink For more on Chico Buarque or ifs
works, please log on to http:// www.chicobuarque.com.br or http:// www.musicrama.com Ernest Barteldes is an ESL and Portuguese teacher. In addition to that, he is a freelance writer who has regularly been contributing The Greenwich Village Gazette since September 1999. His work has also been published by Brazzil, The Staten Island Advance, The Staten Island Register, The SI Muse, The Villager, GLSSite and other publications. He lives in Staten Island, NY. He can be reached at ebarteldesnvcnv.net
EDGARDO QUINT ILIA, Esq ATTORNEY AT LAW/ABOGA I 0/ADVOGADO MEMBER, STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA
(818) 986-1295 e-mall:ecila.vv@?pacicoell_net
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A Killer bet I Murderer My friend Ary, a reporter famous for good scoops
(furos) was Killer Ary—no offense given or taken. WILSON VELLOSO
38
iThere is little doubt that the worse offenders of Brazilian Portuguese are found in the media. Because newsmen (jorna/istas) are always in a hurry, and "editing" in the English sense of the word practically doesn't exist in Brazil, all kinds of horrors crop in. Since the reading and listening public seldom bothers to protest, the language bears the brunt of the combined assaults of ignorance, lack of professional tradition and ethics, and a mere "we couldn't care lesi'' attitude. Every Brazilian who learns a foreign language fancies him/herself a translator and commit§ terrible errors that soon spread out, become the 'right" term or expression. One such horror is Báleia assassina as a name for the playful, fri dly, water zoos' star, the Orca orcinus— kill r. Hl ow come the orca turned a murderess in BraZil? Simple: it has teeth and, like so many lantl, and water animals, is a cannibal. It sustains itself devouring other denizens of the ocean. Thelmajority ofthe other whales, the big whales, me ly open their mouths, swallow a lot of wat r and with it millions of microscopic animal , plankton, etc. which all die. Then they blo the water out and ingest the animals. et, it is too much to expect that a cheap-rate Br ilian translator would know all that. To him her, killer is somebody who kills. But there are nany different meanings of killing. If you t winlarge amount of money at poker, you made a kii ling but you are NOT a murderer. If the editer of a publication orders a certain matter kill4d, he is saying only: remove it. If an emplo e stamps any document with VOID, he is ,"killing" it. In the postal service they do a lot of killi g of stamps and nobody is, prosecuted or goe to jail for it. 11 carnivores kill the animals they eat, but hav you ever heard ofa lion, tiger, leopard, fox, beink called an assassin? Killer can even be a term of praise. A person fan-191.1s for doing a job quickly is sometimes callee a killer. My friend Ary, a reporter for the Ass iated Press, famous for always getting goo scoops (furos) in no time was Killer Ary no offense given or taken. And all of us kill ockroaches, flies, spiders, mosquitoes, aphi' s, lice, caterpillars and other house and gard n pests. Many boxers (pugilistas) have had e epithet added to their professional names: Kill Jones, Killer Joe Smith, tually, a type of kill is an old American wor from the Dutch kil. It means a channel, a brotik (regato), creek (arroio), stream (ribetrdo, corrego), either as a name in itself or tagged to another name, such as Kildare, Kilmartin, etc. Very common in Delaware. As is run (riacho) in Virginia, like in Bull Run, Roa es' Run and many other streams. In Maryland, the equivalent term is branch, Paint Ora h, etc. fore going much farther, I would like to thanl4Chris, a reader from Brazil, for this praise BRAZZIL -AUGUST 2002
for this series, and for pointing out a slipup of mine. Instead of writing acrophobia for "horror to, or fear of, heights", I wrote agoraphobia, which is, instead, "horror to, or fear of open spaces." We didn't agree as to how to pronounce a certain term, but that is a just a moot point (ponto discutivel). After all, English is a living and changing language. A few years ago, no self-respecting writer would use two dwarfs. It had to be two dwarves (undo, anoes), as it was hooves as plural of hoof, (cascos) as it was halves as plural of half. Even if Americans stick to archaisms like whiskey (in England whisky), and still use the obsolete gotten instead of got, which is shorter and sounds better, this is our common language. And we should honor and respect it, as all languages. Often, the change in meaning is faster. For instance, hero (hero°, which used to describe "persons who practice brave acts at the risk of their own life" (such as happened with New York City firefighters and others on September 11, 2001) is changing extra fast. Nowadays, any person who gains notoriety, appears a lot on TV for some deed—without any risk of life—may become a hero. For instance, Oprah of TV
renown, Tom Cruise of famous Hollywood movies----are heros. Hero gained an added definition: "famous," "an idol," "an icon," "a leader." There are even books on "how to be a hero." It happens in Portuguese too, of course. Why are members of the Sao Paulo City police called grilos (crickets)? Because the first ones, who also directed traffic, were equipped with apitos (whistles), in addition to the once famous cassetetes (truncheons), instead of pistols. Alas, this attempt at having uniformed "civil policemen"—an imitation of the traditional London bobbies (policiais). If I am not mistaken, now they all—English and Brazilian included—carry firearms. Heleninha B. asks what is the difference between the World Series of Baseball and the World Cup of Football Association. Dear H., the difference is the meaning ofthe term World (Mundial,do
Mundo). When our World Series came into being, only Americans and perhaps some Canadians, played baseball (beisbol). It was a rather limited world, but in their enthusiasm and hubris, the men who created the annual dispute of a trophy (trgfeu, taca), perhaps hoped that one
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First part of a two-part article
The Scent of God A goodbye to author
Roberto Drummond It's a pity we can't talk by phone on Sundays any more. It's a pity you can't come to visit Colorado with Bela B. It's a pity you can't seduce your readers and fans with one more novel or a few more articles. ADELAIDE BOUCHARDET DAVIS
40
An accidental friendship with Roberto Drummond—the creator of Hilda Furaciio In 1998, my friend from Belo Horizonte Ana Cecilia Carvalho came to visit me where I live in Denver, Colorado. She brought as a present a book from a good friend of hers, Roberto Drummond, a novel that had become very successful in Brazil — Hilda Furaccio. When she gave me the book, she remarked casually, "It's excellent! Roberto is simply great! You'll love it!" After checking the number of pages and type size, I put it aside, with my other presents, and thought "I'll take it to my room and later, when I have time, I'll take a better look." I knew about Roberto Drummond, but I had never read any of his books before. That night I made myself comfortable in bed, adjusted the light, and started my passeio (stroll) through that now famous work of the Mineiro author, that writing magician, who became one of Brazil's most famous contemporary novelists. Sometime after I had finished reading Hilda Furaccio for the second time, I went to EmpOrio Minas, the store on the other side of the city that sells Brazilian goodies. I needed some polvilho (fermented cassava starch) for my cheese bread. To be Mineiro, you know, is beyond being born in Minas Gerais—it's a state of soul. We leave the state but the state doesn't leave us. In a Mineiro's housethere must bepao de queijo (cheese BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
bread), so I started the search for my polvilho. Besides food, the store also has a good selection of videos of Brazilian TV programs, and among them there was the Rede G lobo miniseries Hilda Farad's°. I didn't think twice; I got the four boxes with the videos and rented them for a week. My first thought was, "Does this miniseries have the same magic as the book? It'll be difficult!" The book is always better than the film or the miniseries. The magic of the reading is in the skill of the writer in passing to the reader the responsibility of participating in the story completely. The good writer leaves to the reader the task of imagination. I arrived home, put the first video on to play, and the magic happened again. Hilda FuracAo became real, she was there, beautiful and mysterious. She existed! The adaptation made by Gloria Perez didn't destroy Roberto's work but rather showed in an even more romantic way the story of Hilda and everything and everybody that became part ofher world in the 1950s and 60s. So for one week, I let myself sit for hours each day in front of the TV, letting the emotions flow in response to the story. Many laughs, much, much crying—a terrific trip. Perfect sound track! I could still sing some of the songs that were hits at that time. I must make contact with Roberto Drummond, I thought. I must tell him what was happening to me. I was beyond the age to write fan mail to movie or TV actors, much less writers of novels. I don't know if the fact of being far from my country was creating such tumult in my life, or if it was all coming from that incredible story, but the truth is that something really different was happening to me and I needed, at least, to share it with the person responsible for setting in motion such a dither. I called my friend Ana Cecilia and told her, in a general way, what was happening. I said I needed to write to Roberto and would like her to give me his e-mail. She said I could write to the Estado de Minas, the major newspaper of the state, because he had a daily column there about, of all things, soccer. I couldn't wait another day. I wrote a letter to Roberto by e-mail, not knowing whether or not he would have any time to deal with my letter, with such a tight calendar and living with growing fame, but in the middle of doubts and uncertainties I wrote and told him what was BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
going on. I told him that after a few pages, it became almost impossible to put the book down. I said to myself: "I'll read up to the end of this page," and then "IT read up to the end of the chapter," anc then "I'll just keep reading." Although I wanted to read every word. I didn't want to finish reading the book because it meant leaving that fascinating world of which I was feeling so much a part. The characters became familiar friends, and I was transported backward in time to Belo Horizonte during the 1950s and 60's, years that I remember so well, with streets that! passed through or places I had visited many times. I told Roberto that it had become impossible to wait to read at night, so in any spare time I could find, I read a little more. My desire to re-read parts or to spend a little more time in some parts, stretched the time for me to be involved
with the story. I didn't want to leave t time or place. When! finally finished t book, I became unbearably melancholi I was feeling like I had been thrown o of illy own home, against my will, with many things still to be known and to said. I couldn't accept having to leave th wonderful world in this way, just becau the book was finished. So I came back the first page and started reading agai And as in all re-reading, I discover comers and contours that escaped met first time. And this re-reading happen a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth tim And each time the sensation of "bei part of the story" was renewed. I told him that with his book he stirr my memories, made me cry as a lift child, and gave me back the Brazil I us to like and for which I have so mu saudades (longing). And they are hu saudades of a time that does not exist a more and won't exist ever. It hurts insi making a knot in the chest that makes
want to cry and implore the past to come back and allow me to live it again. And he needed to know that it was his responsibility because he shook my sensitivity in all directions. I told him he transported me to the Belo Horizonte of my childhood—Minas Tenis Clube, Marilia de Dirceu square, Montanhes, the streets downtown, and the sinful red-light district. Besides Hilda there were so many other well-known characters and each name brought back specific facts to my memory. Jose Maria Rabelo from Binotnio—and I remembered the financial bank strikes and the fire that burnt the newspaper down; Alencastro de Carvalho—his daughter Ilka was my Portuguese teacher in Colegio Estadual in one of the best times of my life; Jose Aparecido de Oliveira—the example of a Mineiro politician; the Commandant and the roses in the ID-4, Santa Catarina street, so close to my house; Antonio Luciano—the owner a Belo Horizonte movie theaters, with his "stud" lame; the famous TFM (Tradicional Familia Mineira—Traditional Mineira Family)—gosh! What a trip! He restored in me the pride and privilege of being part of Belo Horizonte' s history and gave me the sensation of being a character in his book. After sending the e-mail I talked to Ana about it and she said that Roberto called and told her about the beautiful letter he received from me and how enthusiastic he was to get a letter like that from a reader. She told me to call him because he would love it. One Sunday afternoon, I called. His wife answered the phone and I told her who I was. Then Roberto came to the phone—just like that. The person talking to me from the other side of the world was not the "star" I had imagined, some sort of navel gazer. The voice was of a generous, timid man, that nice way of being a Mineiro available for a chat—a man of a humble kindness. I felt as if I was talking to an old friend that I hadn't seen for a long time, someone with whom I had had great affinity, a friend extremely am icable, sincere, and simple. He had many things to tell me and we just continued talking and talking like two teen-agers. He told me about his writing, the success of Hilda Furacdo, and the new book ready to be published entitled 0 Cheiro de Deus. I felt extremely happy being able to talk to him that day. That phone call began a friend41
ship that would have a short life; not because we planned it that way, but because destiny would have it so. Fifteen days passed, and when I came back from Aspen, after a short vacation with my husband, there was a note from the post office about a package waiting for me there —from Roberto. I went immediately to pick it up. It was a big package, and I went back to the car and opened it immediately because I couldn't delay my curiosity. I dove into that great package—filled with so many precious things. I was so touched that I started crying! And at the same time I laughed because Roberto wrote on the paper he used for wrapping the presents: "Contents: 1—Letter 2—Hilda Furacdo CD 3—Globo Magazine about Hilda Furacdo 4—Quem Magazine 5—EM Culture—Estado de Minas Attention Friends from the Customs: I'm the author of Hilda Furacdo. Everything inside this package is a present to a friend in the U.S. Roberto Drummond" I put the CD in to play and opened the envelope with the letter inside and there was his "voice", and two handwritten pages. Belo Horizonte, July-1-01
My dear (I never saw you but I already like you) Adelaide Bouchardet Davis Just today, six days later, your e-mail finally caught up with me; arriving, first, at Estado de Minas, where I came back after 11 years. I read it now, while I was waiting for the Brazil vs. Uruguay game, in Montevideo; a game that has taken away Brazilian's sleep these last nights. Among messages, many, many, about soccer, I discovered your e-mail and "entrei em festa" (became excited) for everything you wrote related to Hilda Furacdo, the book and the miniseries. Hilda Furacdo changed my life and knowing that someone of your competency (I already knew about you) read the book six times, and relived so many things, through what you were reading, is an honor and makes me really happy. I was already happy knowing about the translation of Hilda Furacdo to Swedish (Hilda Storm) done by Ulla Gabrielson„ and knowing that the book would be in bookstores in Sweden between April and May 2002; and then your e-mail came to 42
make me even happier this moment. I'll the 10 books he wrote and nourished with an infinite love and an exceptional rekeep it, surely; and I'll read it again. I'm sending you the miniseries CD, spect for his readers. His closest friends one million and two hundred thousand and colleagues expressed their grief and disks were sold in Brazil. I'm also send- noted how much they will miss him. Clara Arreguy said to Superesportes: ing, as an homage for everything you "Roberto Drummond's death steals a lot booklet that was pubwrote, the Globo lished when the miniseries was shown (it lof poetry that the reporter knew, as no became a rarity in Brazil). I'm living other, how to bestow on soccer. Passioncounting down the days now for the re- ate for the ball, for Atletico, for Belo lease of my novel 0 Cheiro de Deus that Horizonte, for Minas, for Brazil, for will be in the Brazilian bookstores by the Ferros, and for his countless muses, end of July. I'll send you 0 Cheiro de 'Roberto Drummond used to write his Deus as soon as it's released. I'm also sports articles as a literary exercise, in the sending the Estado de Minas and Quem artistic sense of the word. "Soccer, for him, was not just a sport. magazine articles about the new book. It was art, the expression of the culture and identity of a people... Roberto was A big hug, an intelligent fellow worker, an amusing, Roberto Drummond but ethical crony. He was a professional PS 1—Thanks for the reference about 'that put passion in everything he did... Bela B., without whom I wouldn't have Although he was extremely happy with the fact that the miniseries Hilda Furacdo written my books. PS2—Brazil lost to Uruguay: 1 to 0 was now being shown in the U.S., he didn't have time to finish the book he was on a penalty. writing about the history ofC lube Atletico It was as if he was here and we were • Mineiro, his ultimate passion. With his talking about everything in another per- sudden departure, Roberto, left many sonal conversation. It was magic! And -people grief-stricken in sports, literature, while I was enjoying all of what I was journalism, and politics. His happiness reading, seeing, and listening to, I was and passion will always inspire all of us thinking how privileged I was. I came in all those paths he sprinkled with poback home, read the articles in the maga- etry." In Shizuoka, Japan, the sports writzine and the newspaper, read the Globo booklet article about the miniseries, and ers, sent to cover the World Cup 2002 let the sensation of "going back to the old lamented Roberto's death. Tostdo, the times" take care of me. Then I wrote to former player in the Brazilian tri-chamhim about the emotions awakened by his pion team in Mexico, sent these words to airborne kindness. He phoned again, and Estado de Minas: "We were good pals. even separated by such great distance, Sometimes we met each other in Savassi Roberto and! made a pact to cultivate our and sat for a long time talking. When I started my career in Cruzeiro (the other friendship. famous soccer team in Belo Horizonte), he was the writer who praised me most. So Early to Go Away Besides losing an exceptional human On June 21, 2002, Roberto Drum- being, Brazil lost a great writer." Fernando Calazans, from 0 Globo mond left the human scene forever leaving in all his readers and friends the bitter said: "When he came back to writing the sensation of saudade. Nobody had time daily report about soccer, I greeted that to say goodbye. He died of a heart attack, happening in my column. He thanked me at daybreak. He was at home and was and sent me a copy of Hilda Furacdo taken to the hospital Biocor. Ana Beatriz, with a dedication." Emanuel Carneiro, president of Rede his daughter, said that her father was Itatiaia de Radio said: "Roberto was a showing symptoms of the attack for a reference point for our city. His manner, while. He was afraid that the doctors would his clothes were a trade mark, as well as prohibit him from watching the World the newspapers he used to carry under his Cup games so early in the morning. As an arm, walking through Savassi, his preavid soccer fan, the World Cup, special ferred place... He was Mineiro in his to all Brazilians, was very special for lifestyle, his way to be, his way with his him. The match of Brazil vs. England, friends. The loss is enormous; Minas which he never saw, made him anxious Gerais has few national figures in literaeven though he bel ieved that Brazil would ture; he was one of them and he loved it, he knew the value of this." win by 3 to 0. The last column Roberto Drummond Roberto Drummond leaves as orphans BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
wrote for Estado de Minas was finished in the afternoon of the Thursday before he died—July 21. He complained about a strong flu. The column was published Friday (July 22) and was entitled "Seja o que Deus quiser" (It's God's wish)—he wrote about his concern and the way he felt about the match between Brazil and England in the World Cup. Roberto didn't see Brazil's victory against England; he didn't see Brazil's victory against Germany. He didn't have the pleasure ofcrying with emotion when Ronaldo lifted in the air the World Cup, the well deserved prize for the fifth championship of world soccer. Roberto didn't celebrate here, among us. But, I'm sure he was leading a group of angels and chatting with all the deceased soccer fans there with him now, about Brazil's phenomenal strategies. I'm also sure that the great Heleno de Freitas received him with open arms and Garrincha, with his shy way, came to talk to the great Mineiro reporter. And all of them were there, watching on the big screen of life the Selecao Canarinho (for the Brazilian team) showing to the world that, at least in matters of soccer, nobody is more creative, more audacious, nobody plays as beautiful as our "boys from Brazil." In July 21,2002, at 6PM, I came back from my work with an enormous feeling ofloss. I was hurting and my emotion was trapped in my throat. I wanted to say good-bye to Roberto, I wanted in some way to tell him what I couldn't say anymore in the call I had planned for the following Sunday. I decided to write a letter that he would never read, a letter that wouldn't have a recipient but that must be written for my own sake. Lakewood, June 21,2002. My dear friend Roberto, Your departure left suspended a series of things to be shared: the plans for you to come with Bela B. to Denver, Colorado, to visit my house and the Rocky Mountains; the news that I would send to you about my trip to Istanbul; our conversation about 0 Cheiro de Deus that, as I told you in my last letter (two weeks ago), I took with me to Turkey. I read it on the airplanes, seated at the airports, and in the evenings in my bedroom in the Parkside Hilton Hotel in Istanbul. I finished the reading on Sunday, June 16, my, last day in that magnificent city. At this moment the sensation of loss I have is extremely painful and it's difficult to believe, being so far away, that BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
you left, like this, suddenly, without a good-bye, # k. like a bird flying off. Ilk IV I have that feeling of impotence that always assaults me when I lose control of some situation. I planned on calling you on June 23, Sunday. During the week I was working in Boulder, and every day when I was driving there and back, little things were reminding me about the phone call to be made: Judy Garland singing "Somewhere over the rainbow" (I have the same CD I took to you when I went to Brazil last met in UNA-BH, also left a message. October!), Eartha Kitt singing"Angelitos Both of them were shocked and emoNegros" (the music that Jose Mojica sang tional. I talked to Ana Cecilia and Nelson to Catula in 0 Cheiro de Deus). Ah! And today—they went to say good-bye to you I would ask you again about which TV at the funeral. channel (in Spanish) is showing Hilda I'm wondering if you received the Furaceio here in the States (my friend last letter! sent before going to Istanbul— Sandra asked me and I didn't know for I hope so. You would like to know that sure). your book is already in the U.S. I sent you Today I was working in Boulder again the newsletter from Luso-Brazilian and I was checking my e-mails. There Books, NY, advertising 0 Cheiro de was one from Rodney, of Brazzil maga- Deus. Did you talk to Gregory Rabassa zine. He gave me the news that I was about the translation for Hilda Furacdo hoping never to receive—about your and 0 Cheiro de Deus? You were right, departure. I was in shock and started I think he would do a great job—he crying and saying to myself "It's not translated Jorge Amado, Machado de possible! It's not possible!" I was speak- Assis, and many others. ing in Portuguese and people around me As Elizabeth Geiser (a friend in pubcouldn't understand what I was saying lishing I told you about) said, if the book but they could see that something bad goes to an American publisher already had happened. They asked me what was translated, this is a plus. Elizabeth is going on and I could just say "my friend, coming to Denver. She'll be shocked my friend from Brazil..." when I tell her that you left; she won't I called my husband Jim immediately believe—she used to say that you have "a and told him. He couldn't believe it ei- great face". I told her everything about ther and told me to check other sources. your work, about you, about the interI told him that Rodney sent the article view—she loved it and always asked from a newspaper in Rio. Jim asked me about you when we met. I wanted to come home, but I stayed, My dear friend, I'm totally confused. even though Stephen, the project engi I want to say so many things and ask so neer, said I could leave. I didn't want t many questions, even though my quesbe home alone at that point. tions won't have answers and now you Marcio, my Brazilian friend tha won't be able to read my own stories. But works in the same company, checked th I need to write this letter—it's a catharsis Brazilian newspapers through the interne for me. For, now everything looks so and all of them confirmed the news an unreal and it's as if the pain is locked even your picture was there on the screen. inside me—a huge chain around my heart. I spent the rest of the day in front of m Your visit to Denver with Bela B. was computer, with my heart heavy and cry already planned in my head. So many ing each moment. Ana Cecilia also sen things to be seen, so many places to be me an e-mail that shook me once more visited. I'm sure you would love the confirming the reality. place, the people, the vistas of this gorgeous state. I came back home listening to Jud Garland. I don't remember the road o Jim and I loved Istanbul. It's imposhow much time it took me to arrive home sible not to fall in love with that incredible place. Like Brazilians, the Turks Ana Cecilia left a message on the answer ing machine. Geralda, another friend yo love soccer and were fascinated by the 43
my people and cultivate my taste for a new kind of literature. And, most important, he left books that will be his voice forever, a sweet melody to carry the fantasies of the soul.
Roberto Drummond—from sports reporter to novelist
World Cup and pleased to go so far! About 0 Cheiro de Deus that I finished reading the day we were leaving Istanbul, I had so many things to discuss with you. One of them was the "sensation of being included" that I felt—being part of the Drummond family, being part of vó Inacia Micaela's castle, being part of the "city of coughs and orgies". After falling in love with Hilda Furacao, I thought you couldn't ever have the power of doing this with me any more—seducing my mind completely. But I need to confess that you did it. I read at night and commented with Jim during breakfast. It's one of the most incredible books I ever read (and I have read a lot!). I'm fascinated with the Drummond family portrayed in your book. I couldn't stop reading and commenting to myself (or to whomever was around) "What a genius!" Thank you for giving your readers one more precious work! There are so many things that I would like to say about the book, so many details I would like to clear up. Alas ... some things go unresolved. After so many years living here, this is one ofthe few times that I have become conscious about being so far from my land. I'm not talking about Brazil—I'm talking about Belo Horizonte, I'm talking about Minas Gerais. I have this huge sensation of loss. Today I'm missing being Mineira. My heart is missing the city where I lived for so many years, I'm missing my Manlia de Dirceu street, the streets of Savassi and Santo Ant6nio. And as with numberless compatriots, my heart is really missing Roberto Drummond. Slowly I'm becoming conscious that you really left. The readers lost the 44
novelist, the soccer fans lost the sportswriter, I lost a great friend. I'll miss you a lot, my friend. It's a pity we can't talk by phone on Sundays any more. It's a pity you can't come to visit Colorado with Bela B. It's a pity you can't seduce your readers and fans with one more novel or a few more articles. You left so early! You could stay a little more (and if it was possible, forever). To make the pain hurt less, I like to think that this was a special moment for your career, for you who were doing what you liked the most in life—enchanting those who have the privilege to know your work. You owe me the autographs in all my books—you promised to do this when you came to visit. I read again the first letter I sent to you. I read again the first one you sent to me. In my heart you didn't leave; you are on vacation having earned a deserved rest. Don't worry, my friend, we'll never forget you, but we'll miss you a lot. A big hug that can't be given this time. Adelaide. I feel a tremendous frustration with the death of this dear friend. Some weeks have now past, but the bitter taste of the loss hasn't gone away—and maybe it won't ever go. I don't have his voice on tape. I don't have the autographs in my precious books. But I have the pictures I took when we met in Brazil, I have the letter and the mementos he sent to me. They'll remind me that Roberto Drummond entered into my life, in a strange way and for a brief time, but it was enough to illuminate my feelings for
Roberto Francis Drummondwas born in Fen-os, Minas Gerais, in the Rio Doce Valley, December 21, 1933. He moved to Belo Horizonte (the capital of the State) when he was an adolescent and studied in Colegio Arnaldo. He said one day about Minas Gerais: "Here I'm home. Here I manage to carry out my proposal to be a writer. I'm in the environment of what I want to write. Here I'm happy to do what I want." He started working in the 50's covering the student movement he was in; this movement opened the doors of journalism for him. He was invited to work in Folha de Minas newspaper (now extinct) by the journalist Felippe Drummond (a cousin he didn't know before) after asking if he could place an announcement in that newspaper, some coverage of an aspect of the student movement at that time. He was also a reporter for the newspapers Binomio and Ultima flora. Later he became the publisher of the magazine Alterosa. In the 60's he went to the newspaper Estado de Minas where he was a reporter and editor of the cultural section (Second Edition), writing also a column in the Sports Section. He was a sports journalist during a big part of his life and was passionate about soccer. He cooperated, as a sports' writer, with many newspapers and other media. He was a fanatic fan of Clube Atletico Mineiro (CAM), the "rooster team" (the rooster is the symbol of the team.) He used to say: "If there is a Tshirt black and white hanging on the clothesline during a tempest, the `Atleticano' cheers against the wind." (black and white are CAM colors). As a reporter for the Estado de Minas, where he had a daily column in "Superesportes" he worked for more than 30 years; his articles, full of passion for the sport he always loved, were read not just by "Atleticanos" (fans of Clube Atletico Mineiro), but by all devotees of soccer. His work is extensive. He always put a lot of his own emotions into his articles. About "emotion" he revealed in Quem magazine (5/25/01—Editora Globo):"I BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
cry over anything—watching TV, writing, listening to music, and also watching soccer." Besides being a sports reporter, Roberto dedicated his life to writing and, as a writer, it was this emotion—that made him cry over anything—that gave his novels their special quality and produced such good reviews and prizes. When he published his first book of short stories, A Morte de D.J. em Paris, in 1975, he used to classify his writing as "pop literature" and explained that this could be summarized as "unconventional literature, without intellectualism, without a link to traditional literature." For Roberto, literature happens all the time; it happens in the barzinho (young people's bar), inside the elevator, with the guy who didn't study, or with the waitress— none of whom are writers. In an interview with J.A. de Granville Ponce, he was already reinforcing this by saying that it's necessary to incorporate those people's ways of speaking without "chewing" anything for anybody. It's necessary to have an open literature that allows many interpretations, as opposed to a closed literature, with everything well "chewed". For him the writer's role is to "baguncar o coreto" (create disorder) for a traditional and corrupt society. "The writer must be a star, must give hope, must give support, create something new, produce a new man. There must be a literature of strife, a contest (struggle) literature, even if it's not making a direct attack." In this interview with Granville Ponce, Roberto talks about himself and his dreams of being a writer since the time he was a boy. He said to the interviewer: "I'm Mineiro. I was born in the Rio . Doce Valley. I don't tell my age. I use to say that I'm 36 years old and I have a younger brother who's impressed because he's already ahead of me. I'm married, my wife's name is Maria Beatriz, and I have a daughter—for now, her name is Ana Beatriz. My father, Francisco Alvarenga Drummond, engineer, farmer. My mother, Ricarda de Paiva Drummond. When I was a child I used to say that I wanted to be a writer and it was as if I was saying that I wanted to be a robber, that I would kill someone, do you know? Everybody looked at me shocked and said that a writer was a crazy person. "They said that there was a certain Carlos Drummond de Andrade, from the region of Itabira, close to my homeland, that was completely crazy. They said that he wrote a "thing" that said something BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
like 'there was a stone in the middle ofthe way, in the middle of the way there was a stone' and he was killing Brazilian poetry. They also used to say that a writer is a crazy vagabond man. It took some time for me to be free of this. I finally became free doing therapy. "When I was writing I felt a zillion diseases—my hand started to sweat, my heart jumped, I thought I would have an infarct, I thought I would die. This "tied me down" a lot. Finally I discovered that I could write without turning into a crazy vagabond. It took a lot of time to be able to be ready to write, do you know? Nothing came,! had a violent blockage. Nowadays I don't feel anything, I mean, I feel a tremendous happiness, but those symptoms that I used to feel I don't feel any more. "I began writing when I was around 13, 14 years old. Always stories, or radio soap operas... But I was really tight, you know. I had a bunch of prisons. I had, for example, the Jorge Amado prison. I wanted to be a second Jorge Amado. Then I became free of Jorge Amado and I fell into another prison, Ernest Hemingway prison. I wanted to be exactly that way. I thought even that I should go to Vietnam, to some place where there was a war. I think I became free when I started therapy, when I started to find my true self, ta accept myself the way I was. I saw that I was not Jorge Amado or, Hemingway. For my misfortune or my luck, I was myself. "I stopped studying when I finished high school. After this I started in journalism. I hit this phase when Mineir journalism was really great. We exporte many good professionals (to other part of the country)... Here in Belo Horizont I directed a magazine named Alterosa which closed in 1964. I went to Jornal d Brasil, making good money. I used t live on Avenida Atlantica, with the win dow turned to the ocean, which was marvelous thing for a Mineiro. But something was not quite right. I used to thin that every single plane was going to Mina Gerais. It was terrible. An airplane tha was actually goingto New York, I used to think was going to Minas." The Mineiro's soul spoke louder and Roberto went back to Belo Horizonte leaving behind an offer for advancemen in Jornal do Brasil, a position he has sought. He wanted to "go home". With the story A Morte de D.J. em Paris, Roberto Drummond won the
Premio Jabuti. This story was inserted in the book Os Cem Melhores Contos Bras ileiros do Seculo, organized by italo Moriconi, published by Editora Objetiva in 2000. In the preface to the section for "The 70 ' s—V iolence and Passion," Moriconi says, "the Brazilian writer of the 70's wants to jangle the self-satisfied choir". And Roberto Drummond did this as no other writer. Besides the book published in 1975, Roberto Drummond had published: * 0 Dia em que Ernest Hemingway Morreu Crucificado (novel, 1978) Sangue de Coca-Cola (novel, • 1980) * Quando Fui Morto em Cuba (short stories, 1982) Hitler Manda Lembrancas * (novel, 1984) * Ontem a Noite Era 6°. Feira (novel, 1988) * Hilda Furacdo (novel, 1991), translated to French, Swedish, and Spanish • Ines E Morta (novel, 1993) 0 Homem que Subornou a • Morte (short stories and chronicles, 2000) * 0 Cheiro de Deus (novel, 2001) Two of his books became extremely popular. One, as mentioned before, because it became a miniseries (Hilda Furacdo—Rede Globo de Televisdo) in 1998, through the adaptation of Gloria Perez. The other because the author, then extremely popular, was releasing his major work-0 Cheiro de Deus. Thanks to: Estado de Minas, 0 Globo, Folha de Stio Paulo, 0 Estado de S. Paulo, Superesportes, Veja magazine, Quem magazine, Central Globo de ProducOes (booklet) Thanks to: Jim Davis who edited the English text. Adelaide Bouchardet Davis, born in Visconde do Rio Branco, Minas Gerais state, is a writer and professor of Portuguese at Denver University, state of Colorado. You can reach her via e-mail: addavisAdu.edu To be continued The second part of this article contains an interview with Roberto Drummond as well as analyses of his books Hilda Furaclio and 0 Cheiro de Deus 45
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right of gays to express their affection i public. A Portuguese exile and an Indian would have been the first Brazilian homosexuals. With Cia. Os Fofos Written and directed by Newton Moreno. I ntimidade Indecente (Indecent Intimacy)—Comedy. A couple get separate( when they are in their 50s. But they continue bumping into each other every ten years or so until they are in their 80s. Thei stories and lies. Written by Leila Assumpeao, with Marcos Caruso and Iren Ravache. Nilo Me Conte Verdades (Don't Tell M Truths)—Dramedy. Patients meet in health clinic and start a dialogue whil waiting to be seen by the doctor. Written b Tacito Rocha, directed byLuiz Serra an Marcos Cardeliquio. With Enio Goncalves Jose Ferro and Lourdes de Moraes. Um Pijamapara Seis (A Pajama for Six A group of friends play a swinging gam during a weekend in a country house. Jacqueline loves Robert, her husband's bes friend, while Bernardo, the husband, is i love with Marilu. She pretends to be th fiancée of Roberto just to be close to he lover. Written by French playwright Mar Camoletti, directed by Rogerio Fabian with Luciana Coutinho, Jayme Periard an Elcio Romar.
Mamde Ndo Pode Saber (Mom Cannot Know)—Comedy. Family deep in debt gets ready to receive the visit of the matriarch, who lives in Europe and is quite wealthy. Written and directed by Joao Falcao. With Vladimir Brichta, Lazaro Ramos, Edmilsom Barros, Drica Moraes, and Alessandra Maestrini. Caixa 2 (Under the Table)—Comedy. A man gets an extra credit of $10 million in his bank account. His life becomes miserable when he decides to return that money. Written by Juca de Oliveira and directed by Fauzi Arap, with Mauro Mendonca, Oswaldo Loureiro, and Claudia Mauro.
Stella do Patrocinio: Relatos de uma Alma Aprisionada (Stella do Patrocinio: Reports of a Chained Soul)—Text by Stella do Patrocinio. Directed and interpreted by Clarisse Baptista. The testimony of Stella, who for 30 years, was locked at Colonia Juliano Moreira, a psychiatric institution in Rio. C6cegas (Tickling)—Several women provoke laughs and compassion while talking about their stressed life. Ingrid Guimaraes and Heloisa Perisse wrote and interpret all the different characters. Amor, Religido e Sexo (Love, Religion and Sex)—Seven inmates share their experiences and interact with each other in jail, undressing themselves figuratively and literally. Written and directed by Wellington Amorim with Wellington Amorim, Anderson Clayton and Edino Junior.
IIII PAIN Cachorro! (Dog!)—Dramedy. The peace of three men living under a bridge is disturbed when a woman shows up looking for her dog during winter night. Written and directed by Enio Goncalves. With Emerson Ribeiro, Enio Goncalves, Jose Ferro, and Mara Faustino. Deus Sabia de Tudo e Ndo Fez Nada (God Knew It All and Did Nothing)—Tragicomedy. Play discusses homophobia and the BFtAZZIL -AUGUST 2002
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0 Principe (The Prince)—Brazil/2002 After living two decades in Paris, Gusta o comes back to Sao Paulo, his hometow, and finds out that he doesn't know an thing and anyone anymore. Directed my Ugo Giorgetti, with Eduardo Tornag Bruna Lombardi, Ricardo Blat, Otav o Augusto, and Ewerton de Castro. Uma Vida em Segredo (A Life in S crecy)—Brazi1/2001— Based on Autran Dourado's book of sa name. Biela, 17, becomes orphan and mov s to her wealthy uncle's house. But she ca not adapt to the new life. Directed by Suza i a Amaral, with Sabrina Greve, Elia e Giardini, Caca Amaral, Neusa Borges, a d Eric Nowinsky.
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NONFICTION I. Quem Mexeu no Meu Queijo? (Record), Spencer Johnson (1 —83) 2. 0 Sentido da Vida (Sextante), Bradley Trevor Greive (0 — 0) 3. A Semente da Vit6ria (Senac), Nuno Cobra (5 — 57) 4. Estacio Carandiru (Cia. das Letras), Drauzio Varella (2— 124) 5. Um Dia Daqueles (Sextante), Bradley Trevor Greive (3 — 63) 6. 0 Universo numa Casca de Noz (Mandarim), Stephen Hawking (7 — 31) 7. Voce E Insubstituivel (Sextante), Augusto Jorge Cury (4 — 6) 8. Os 100 Segredos das Pessoas Felizes (Sextante), David Niven (6 — 47) 9. A Casa da Mae Joana (Campus), Reinaldo Pimenta (0 — 0) 10. Um Desafio Chamado Brasil (Civilizacao Brasileira), Ciro Gomes (10 — 2) The first number inside the parentheses tells the position the book was in the previous week. The second number indicates for how many weeks the book is in the list. Lsto According to www.istoegente.com.br
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For Ad, call (323) 255-8062 or E-mail: brazzil@brazzil.com BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
FEIR A LIVIII Jornal Brazileirissimo contrata profissional de vendas corn experiencia. Salado baseado in comissOes. Interessados entrar em contato corn nossa redagao pelo telefone (310)569-0773 ou email: info@brazileirissimo.com 1197]
ega Servicos Legais, consultas sem limite, cartes, chamadas e outros beneficios incluidos, para individuos somente $26 per mes. Tambem oferece protegao para families ou neg6cios pequenos. (909) 392-5766 ou jdasilva@lycosmail.com [196]
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OSSES #1 Portuguese Language Learning Tapes. $190. Call (310) 471-5370 [196] PORTUGUESE CLASSES - Brazilian teacher. Fast, easy, efficient and pleasant way to learn Portuguese. (949) 240-8178 [196]
manes Income tax, bookkeeping services. Certified tax preparer experienced and reasonable. Call Cintia Bove (415) 203-6464. Falo Portugues, Espanol. [192]
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Wanted: Men & Women 18-40 interested in meeting Americans for relationships. New website coming August 25th "American-Brazil Dating Service" looking to put you on its website. Send two color photos, your age, sexual preference (i.e. straight, bisexual, or gay), hobbies, address, phone number, or email. Service fee of $1.00 U.S. dollars only required($2.00 Real). Our site will get quick results with our national advertising in U.S. Today newspaper. Email: BMore20128@aol.com - Mail: Rising Star Enterprises, Suite 16 6751 Macon Road, Columbus, GA 31907 USA - Phone (706) 569-5494 Free Personal Ad - Send bio-data, photos to: Patrick Williams, ADC#84677, Box 3200-B, Buckeye, AZ, 85326, USA. All wellcome. [196] Fire and Passion - Agenda de Casamento para Brasileiros e Estrangeiros, no ramo desde 1989. Marriage Agency for Brazilians and Foreigners in business since 1989. www.firepassion.com Email: fogo@firepassion.com -Tel: 310-450-4586 [196]
'ace aneous lam looking for desktop publisher, copy & art, advertising, mailing list broker, printing services. Direct Mail Service - Marlene Soares (626) 4530755 Los Angeles (CA) [189]
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ersona an He s "oman Handsome US Citizen, 5'8" tall, athletic, seeks Brazilian or Latino girl, age 35+, for possible marriage. (925) 609-9023. E-mail: petenaji@pacbeffinet [189] American male, 37, college educator, seeks Brazilian lady for friendship/relationship, Los Angeles, CA area, Daniel 310-257-8940 delse@csulb.edu [187] Elderly Black American seeks Brazilian lady 40 plus. Write Don Clifford, PO Box 512491, Los Angeles, CA 90051-0491 [185] Sagittarian or Gemini girl preferred by a holistic doctor and astrologer from India, 45 years old, who is US citizen and well settled in Beverly Hills. Would like to meet a pretty slim female. Call Dr. David 323-936-1449. [183]
'MC TICKET TO BRASIL* Bossa Nova and Brazilian Jazz group " www.tickettobrasil.com [203] Learn to play Brazilian percussion. Videos for sale. Visit us on www.bridgesto.com Demo and free lesson on the website. [186] Brazilian Music in its totality. Samba, bossa nova, chorinho, balk, axe, and more. Merchan Express (954) 785-2131
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Mexico president with Caccloso
Continued from our last issue.
final Grade
percent of the recipients who were in the system for government employees. FedSocial Security Reform eral government employees were especially generously provided for, with the Reforming Brazil's social security sys4.7 percent of the beneficiaries who were tem has been a priority for Cardoso since federal employees receiving 22.1 percent he took office, because the system is fundaof the revenue.B mentally unjust and financially out of conThis imbalance in the social security President Cardoso is trol. There are really two systems. One, for system is one ofthe main reasons Cardoso government employees, is extremely gennot very good at communicharacterized Brazil not as a welfare state erous. Civil servants can retire at full salary but as an ill-fare state that takes from the cating his empathy for the as of thei r last date of employment. Federal poor to give to the rich and well-to-do.civil servants even receive a 20 percent suffering of others, at givUnfortunately, it continued to be so at the raise when they retire. Their pensions are end of his years in office, and he told ing rousing speeches and raised to keep up with the salaries of civil Congress that "to correct this situation servants who are still working. Furtherinspiring the masses. will imply arduous and very persistent more, they can retire quite young. dependefforts to liberate the Brazilian state from People say "he is honest ing on their years of service and their age, the yoke of privileged groups that suroften at age 55. or younger. Women retire and intelligent, but he is round it from the outside and colonize it five years younger than men whose contrifrom within." distant from the people." butions are otherwise equivalent. This sysHe admitted that "other battles must tem is a very important benefit for civil still be fought," but claimed that "some servants and helps to recruit highly qualiimportant victories have been achieved in TED GOERTZEL fied people. But it is one that is paid for by the long campaign to place the destitute general taxes imposed on people whose majorities at the top of the priorities for incomes are lower and who receive much public spending."34 less. Social security reform has met stronger resistance The second social security system, for the common than most of his other reform efforts, and many observpeople. is a pay-as-you-go system dependent on contribuers believe that he handled it badly. S6nia Draibe states tions, and benefits are very low. Before 1988, benefits for that "the reform negotiated from 1995 through to the rural workers were much lower than for those in urban end of 1998 was plodding, confused and incompetently employment, but these have been equalized. Extending managed by the government... the government failed to full social security coverage to rural workers was perhaps drive home its proposal with sufficiently strong political the single most important measure taken to redistribute will—at any rate it appeared that way—and to back it up income and lessen misery in Brazil. There is also coverwith an efficient scheme for informing and forming age for destitute elderly people and others not having any public opinion.-" retirement coverage, but payments are low. The basic The failure to push social security reform through statistics are shown in Chart Twelve. [Editor's note: for early in Cardoso's administration may be in part due to technical reasons Brazzil had to omit the graphics You can the fact that so many political resources were spent on see them at http://crab.rutgers.edut-goertzel/fhc.html the Constitutional amendment permitting Cardoso's As of 1988, 10.49 percent of the Brazilian Gross reelection. Congressional staffers are especially well Domestic Product was used for these Social Security rewarded by the civil service system, and it is difficult expenditures, of which 43.3 percent was spent on the 15.2 to gain their support for other reforms when their ben-
52
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
efits are being threatened. But Cardoso did not do ‘a. good job of explaining the reforms to the public and reassuring them that they were designed to assure security in old age for everyone. Brazil's successful demographic revolution, with low birth and death rates, has led to a rapidly aging population, and providing for the aged will be difficult in the decades to come just as it will in the United States and other countries. The opposition to social security reform has been particularly tenacious because of Brazil's strong entitlement culture. People with government jobs simply believe that they are entitled to lifetime employment with good pay and a good retirement, even if the society doesn't really need their services, ifthey retire very young, or, for that matter, even if they go out on strike. In some states there have been cases of people who have been convicted of bribery and sentenced to prison being let out on payday to collect their checks. Women simply assume that they are entitled to retire five years younger than men, without having contributed anything extra to cover those years. When people's life plans have been built around these expectations, it is very difficult for them to accept that they must be changed. Despite these problems, the Cardoso government did succeed in passing part of its social security reform agenda in October of 1998. For the general public, this included minimum age and length of contribution requirements, abolishing special pensions and the right to retire on apension proportional to length of service. For civil servants, early retirement was restricted, and a combination of age limits and time of service requirements were imposed. Some exceptionally high pensions were capped. The reforms are not sufficient, however, to balance the system's books, to say nothing of fully correcting the inequities between social classes. The hope is that the issue has been framed in such a way that reform can continue in the next administration. Sonia Draibe is optimistic in this regard, stating that "from the standpoint of the political forces opposing the reform, the outlook is very bleak. This is not so much because of the defeats they sustained as of the dubious way they handled thorny issues, extending blanket opposition to items of the reform that were morally And socially irrefutable or making last-
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
ditch defense of backward stances th were plainly unjust from a social stand point. The consequent loss of politica capital may prove disastrous as the terms of the next round of welfare reform are announced."" Land Reform and the Environment As countries develop, all over th world, agriculture is modernized an mechanized, using less labor. Brazil 's quite far along in this process, having developed a highly productive commercial agricultural industry. While critics accuse this industry of being orient primarily towards export rather th domestic needs, in fact it includes fo crops such as grain and meat as well export crops such as coffee, sugar a d soy beans that generate valuable forei n exchange. As Charts Twelve and Thi teen' illustrate, Brazil's problem duni g the Cardoso years was not with the pr duction of food. The problem is that a large number of small farmers and agricultural laborers were displaced in the modernization process. The 1988 Brazilian Constitution strengthened provisions stating that unutilized lands could be taken over by the government and distributed to landless people. But the real problem wasn't land so much as financing. Each family
that was resettled required as about US$20,000 in financial support. This money was hard to come by in a country with so many needs, and hard to justify unless the farmers would actually become self-supporting and repay the loans. The government agency that was charged with implementing this program, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform or INCRA, was bureaucratic and inefficient and spent much of its funds on salaries for staff. In the thirty years up to 1995, INCRA succeeded in settling only 218,000 families on the land." Under heavy pressure from the Landless Farmer's Movement, or MST, which sponsored land invasions in many parts of the country, the Cardoso administration was able to accelerate the progress. In the first seven years of Cardoso's administration, 565,000 families were settled on 4,275 projects, more than twice as many as in the precedingthirty years." This success was not at all appreciated by the MST, who hoped to provoke a crisis that would cause Brazil to abandon the large-scale commercial agricultural altogether. They sought to confiscate all farms over 1,000 hectares in size, including highly productive ones, as part of a movement to redistribute society's wealth to the masses. Cardoso was not greatly concerned about the MST's socialist rhetoric, because he felt that it was historically Out of place. The land reform the MST wanted was a 19th century demand in a 21" century world. Today, making a decent living from farming requires a lot of land, technical and managerial skills, and financial resources. Many ofthe people the MST organized to settle on the land lacked these resources and failed. Cardoso wanted to put land reform on a more viable financial basis and, in 1999, succeeded in passing a new agrarian reform program that shifted resources from the old program to a new Land Bank Program that purchased land from large landowners and sold it to people who had the potential to obtain sufficient credit to farm it. Another initiative has been a campaign against "land grabbing" (grilagem), the practice of simply moving into public lands and claiming title to them, often with the collusion of corrupt property registration
53
officials. As with much in Brazil, the biggest problem is not the law as it is written but the ineffectiveness of enforcement. So the Cardoso administration began a process of computerizing and regularizing the land registration procedures. In 1999 they had succeeded in reregistering 3,065 rural land holdings larger than ten thousand hectares in size. This resulted in the canceling of 63,000,000 hectares of land that had been irregularly registered, an area equivalent to approximately 7.5 percent of the national territory. As part of this process, Brazil's largest landowner was arrested in Manaus, the major city in the interior of the Brazilian Amazon. He had claimed to have registered territory amounting to 1.5 percent of the national territory.4" Administrative Reform
Administrative reform does not have the emotional resonance of issues such as fighting poverty or saving the Amazon. It may, however, be of more lasting importance since Brazil's biggest problem is not passing good policies on paper but getting them effectively implemented. It is not terribly important, for example, whether Brazil has a private or a state owned telephone network. It is very important that it has one that works. Brazil has tine environmental and human rights legislation on paper, but the enforcement is often inadequate. This problem is not unique to Brazil. The crises in Argentina and Venezuela, for example. may be due as much to the failure to administer policies honestly and effectively as to wrong policy choices. In his state ofthe nation address on August 18, 2002, Russian president Vladimir Putin observed that Russia had passed a wonderful list of reforms in only two years, but that they were not being implemented effectively. The Economist observed that "most of the reforms bog down in the bureaucracy. Most Russians find it is simpler to pay a quick bribe than spend time fighting misrule in court. Eventually the new ways may begin to work but not any time soon. For all its potential. Russia is therefore still not an attractive place to do business."' In Brazil, getting reforms through the legislature has often been slower than in Putin's Russia, because Brazil is a functioning democracy with a well
54
established division of powers and active pressure groups. Many inefficient policies were locked into the 1988 constitution, requiring a long list of constitutional amendments. The constitution was amended thirty-one times since 1995. These amendments covered issues such as abolishing a number of state monopolies, allowing foreignersto teach in Brazilian universities, creating a fund for the maintenance and development of primary education, changing the rules of the social security system, abolishing the post of -class judge" in the Labor Court system (judges who rule on labor/ management disputes in particular categories of industry), allocating certain federal revenues for health expenditures in states, creating a fund for the abolition of poverty, and many other things that probably should never have been specified in the Constitution in the first place but left to legislative action.42 Getting all these amendments through Congress took up a great deal of Cardoso's time and energy throughout his administraIion. Reforming the civil service rules required a constitutional amendment which was finally passed in 1998. Rules were changed to make it possible to actually dismiss civil servants if their services were not needed. This, however, is difficult to do in practice and usually nontenured or probationary employees must be dismissed first. The most important and effective measures were those that placed limits on how much of their revenue states and municipalities were allowed to spend on salaries. Some states had been spending all of their revenues on salaries, with nothing left over for the programs the workers were supposed to be administrating. Privatization is often a short-cut to administrative reform. Instead of reforming the administration of a governmentowned corporation, it is simply sold to a private company. But the state retains key regulatory functions, and agencies need to be set up to administer them efficiently. In his review of Brazil's reform process, Rubens Penha Cysne observes that -Brazil has made a clear transition—perhaps a little linear (given the country's relatively lack of experience in this sphere)—from an entrepreneurial to a regulatory state."' Agencies have been set up to regulate the electricity, telecommunications
and oil industries. A successful reform of the banking system was implemented early in the Cardoso mandate, which proved essential in helping the country to weather the financial storm of devaluation. This has not been extreme "neoliberalism" as in Argentina, where the foreign banks were given almost complete control of the banking system. The Brazilian Central Bank continues to play a central role, and has assumed responsibility for state debts. The federal government shares revenue with the states, but also controls them and their banks much more firmly than in Argentina.-This mix of firmer state controls with a strong private sector has enabled Brazil to weather the crises imposed by global shocks. Administrative reform is incomplete, but significant progress has been made. The National Debureaucratization Program has made more than six hundred small but significant changes in regulations to make daily life quicker and more efficient." There is a single registration system for government social programs, making it unnecessary to fill out forms over and over for different services. Civil service career lines have been restructured in keeping with more up-to-date requirements. in-service training programs have been intensified, and pay has been increased for civil servants. At the same time, the number of civil servants is being reduced, with the size of the Executive Branch work force reduced by 15 percent, or 88,000 employees.' Management has been decentralized, especially in the area of education, with much greater involvement of parents and local communities. Greater emphasis has been placed on getting results, instead of on implementing rules in the old bureaucratic manner. Nonprofit or -third-sector" organizations are increasingly working in partnership with government agencies. This is part ofa broad, cultural change that Ruth Cardoso's Solidary Community organization has advocated. The Workers' Party has also played an important role in implementing"participatory management" in places such as Porto Alegre where it controls the city government. These changes are incremental and often not dramatic, but they are lasting and important. As Cardoso puts it, they go beyond "obsolete polarities, such as statism vs. the free market, or the false separation between public and private.
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
The objective is not the minimum state or the maximum state but the necessary state. A state that builds and strengthens the conditions necessary for the growth of the economy, and that confronts the challenge ofthe universal access to public services, with priority to meeting the needs of the poorest social strata.'6 This may sound like hollow rhetoric, but at the end of Cardoso's term in office, he can point to a great many tangible programs' that give it reality. Here are some examples: A Secretariat for Human Rights • was established within the Ministry of Justice, and compensation was paid to the families of people who "disappeared" during the military regime. Gun control and money laundering legislation was enacted as part of a campaign against organized crime and street violence. Programs were established to protect the rights of blacks, other minorities, homosexuals, the disabled, women, children and other groups, ineluding a program to combat violence against women. A program was established to combat torture, and Brazil participated in an international conference against torture. Programs to protect indigenous Brazilians were expanded; the Cardoso government declared 104 new protected areas for indigenous groups, with 32 million hectares, and ratified 144 additional areas that had been previously declared, with 41 million hectares. Brazil's indigenous groups are growing at a rate of 3.5 percent a year, in comparison to 1.6 percent for Brazil as a whole, largely due to improved health services." The staff of the Advocate • General's Office was doubled, to provide increased public advocacy within the judicial system. Brazil became more active in international diplomacy, and Cardoso engaged in widespread personal diplomacy, advocating for Brazil's interests. He advocated strongly for Brazil's economic interests, especially with regard to exports to the United States and Europe. A seminar was held on "affirmative action" policies, and a number of government agencies began to implement quotas for Brazilians of African descent, women and disabled people, an
issue which had not been seriously addressed before in Brazil. Brazil's electoral procedures were modernized and computerized, completely avoiding the kinds of problems in counting ballots that were so embarrassing for the United States in the 2000 elections. The tax reforms already de• tailed in the 1988 constitution were effectively implemented, with tax collection largely centralized in the federal government and resources distributed according to strict formulas. The federal government collects 67 percent of the taxes, but keeps only 57 percent, o which 43 percent goes to social security programs. The states and municipal itie control 40 percent of total governmen revenue, and federal tax sharing pro vides a higher share of revenue to th poorer regions of the country. A Ministry of Defense was cre • ated to coordinate the three branches o the military service, and the military w modernized and updated in both equip ment and training, with special attentio to defending Brazil's frontier areas. There are many other programs tha could be described, and it is difficult t objectively assess the impact and effec tiveness of many of these programs Many of them are continuations an improvements of programs begun be fore Cardoso's administration, others ar new programs that will be further devel oped by his successors. Perhaps the mo important thing about all of Cardoso' reforms is that they were done throug regular democratic processes. A Cardoso said in his report to congress, '1 venture to affirm that never in the histo
of Brazil, and very few times in the world, have such profound transformations been conducted in the plenitude of democracy, with the participation of the whole society, and the consensus of an ample majority.' Conclusions Fernando Henrique Cardoso's term of office is not quite over as this chapter is being written, so it may seem premature to evaluate his presidency. Historians will have more perspective in a decade or two. But Brazilians cannot wait for historical objectivity. They have to make decisions now about continuing or changing Cardoso's policies, and about who should lead the country for the next four years. These are really two separate questions, but they tend to get blurred in Brazilian political discourse, in part because of a linguistic problem. In Portuguese, it is awkward to make the distinction that is made in English between policy and politics. Both concepts are usually expressed by the same Portuguese word, politica." Often people who differ very much in their politics do not really differ much in the policies they follow. At the World Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre in February, 2002, for example, leaders of the city's leftist government strongly condemned the "neoliberal" Cardoso administration, the World Bank and global capitalism. In terms of ideological rhetoric and party politics, Porto Alegre's Workers Party leaders are strongly opposed to Cardoso. But on the more concrete level of economic policy, when
they actually have to run a city, it is hard to see the difference. Porto Alegre is firmly enmeshed in the global capitalist economy, producing cars by General Motors, computers by Dell, John Deere tractors, British American tobacco, and wireless communication equipment by Telefifmica of Spain. Porto Alegre's own multinational corporations also compete in the world markets, including the steel producer Gerdau with plants in the United States, the Taurus handgun company, and yang international airlines.' The employment and economic growth funded by this successful globalization allow the Workers Party government to fund innovative social programs. This is all to the good, it is not different from the policies Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his Social Democratic Party implement. Evaluating any administration depends on three things: values, facts and counterfactuals. Our values tell us what we wish had happened. The facts tell us what actually happened. The counterfactuals are what we believe would have happened if different policies had been followed. Cardoso and his critics do not usually differ on their values. They all want economic development, less inequality, better health and education, less crime, inclusion of excluded social groups, and so on. But some critics doubt the intensity of Cardoso's commitment to these values. Others doubt his ability to mobilize the population on the kind of moral crusade they believe the country needs. The first criticism is unfair. Cardoso has consistently demonstrated his commitment to humane and democratic values for many years. But the latter criticism does point to one of Cardoso's weaknesses. He is not very good at communicating his empathy for the suffering of others. He is very good at working with people face to face and getting government to work. He is not so good at giving rousing speeches and inspiring the masses. This accounts for the unenthusiastic rating he receives in opinion polls and in focus groups. People say -he is honest and intelligent, but he is distant from the people." On the level of facts, Cardoso can be evaluated for the accomplishments and failures of his administration. We have looked at much of the evidence, and Cardoso's record certainly compares
56
well with those of his predecessors and with those of the leaders of neighboring countries. There are areas where he has accomplished much less than he hoped, including fiscal and tax reform, political reform and reform of the judiciary. Rubens Penha Cysne reports that -so far the proposed tax reform is no more than a pipe dream," while the political and judicial reforms are "difficult to approve."52 The tax system is regressive and income taxes account for too small a share of government revenue. Brazil's system of proportional representation, in Cardoso's judgment, "needs to be changed to strengthen both the political parties and the link between the elector and his representatives.' But one hears few complaints about these important issues from Cardoso's critics, because opposition to change has come largely from Congress and from powerful pressure groups that no one is eager to confront. What one does hear repeatedly from Cardoso's critics is the claim that he has not paid enough attention or spent enough money on social programs. The facts really do not support this complaint, so one suspects that the real concern may be cuts in salaries and benefits for people who work in the social agencies. If we look at spending on programs other than salaries, we find that it actually increased significantly during the Cardoso years. As Table One shows, about two thirds of this spending is on social security benefits, which are mandated by law. But spending on health, education, housing and urban development have also increased substantially. Table One: " Federal Expenditure on Social Programs, Excluding Salaries (see table at http:// crab.rutgers.edu/ —goertzel/fhc.htm) Cardoso is annoyed by critics who cite statistics about how much money is spent as an indication of the government's priorities. The important thing, as he sees it. is not how much money you spend. but the results you get. If you can get results while spending less money, so
much the better. The purpose of government programs is not to provide jobs for as many state employees as possible, but to get results. Ruth Cardoso said that, when they took office, they could not find a single area where they believed simply spending more money would get good results. They put a great deal of energy into improving the administration of social programs, getting them to focus on producing results instead of simply following bureaucratic rules. Many of these reforms have had measurable results, such as the increase of the number of families settled on farms by the agrarian reform program. Social indicators have improved during the Cardoso years. Of course, the needs are great and much remains to be done. But resources are limited and there are many legal and political restraints on how they can be used. The complaint that Cardoso did not give priority to social programs is not justified by the facts. Many of Cardoso' s critics are socialists who have not reconciled themselves to the global ascendancy of market economics and who oppose privatization and integration of Brazil into the global economy. In this case, the dispute is not about the facts but about counterfactuals, about what might have been. These differences cannot be resolved through rational debate because they are based on deep ideological assumptions. At the World Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre the organizers refused the World Bank's offer to send someone to debate the facts with them. They had already made up their minds about the facts, their goal was to demonstrate that
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
"another world is possible." The vision of that other world is still a bit cloudy; they know what they don't like but they aren't quite sure what to put in its place. They say they aren't "anti-globalisation," they favor "de-globalisation," which is a very subtle difference. In general, they oppose privatization ofstate enterprises, favor redistribution of land, and want to break with multilateral corporations and international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Petras and Veltmeyer are more specific. They believe that Brazil should default on its foreign debt and use the money to settle millions of Brazilians on small farms." They also want to abandon the privatization process and renationalize Brazil's major industries. It is difficult to argue with someone like James Petras who believes that the Argentine crisis is "the hope of a better future."' Cardoso, and most Brazilians, simply do not agree that the best alternative for Brazil is a collapse ofcapitalism. Cardoso believes that Brazil's best chance for a successful future is a strong market economy combined with effective social programs. He was elected on that platform, and he should be judged on how well he has carried it out. Judged by that criterion, he has done well. The old joke. "Brazil is the country ofthe future and always will be," doesn't ring true any more. Brazil is agood place to be right now if you want to make . money. International investors, who could invest their money anywhere, are sending quite a lot of it to Brazil (Chart Thirteen)." Argentina, not Brazil, is the subject of today's jokes. It is "the place where bad ideas go to die." But even in the midst of their crisis the Argentines do not seem likely to opt for James Petras's vision. This is not to say that Cardoso has always made the right decisions, or that he has not benefited from a bit of luck here and there. With hindsight, it is clear that he should have floated the Real sooner than he did. If two major crises had hit at once—say the banking crisis and the exchange rate crisis—the economy might have been thrown into a tailspin." One can always speculate about counterfactuals. In my own judgment, if Lula da Silva had won in 1994 instead of Cardoso, the country would very likely have suffered a financial crisis similar to the one Argentina suffered in 2002. But
BRAZZIL - AUGUST 2002
judgments of this kind are subjective, and reasonable people can differ. As Brazilians think back on Cardoso's eight years in power, many of them may agree with Luis Nassif, whose column was quoted at the beginning of this chapter. Here are his conclusions": "Many times [Cardoso] took heavy blows in order to avoid institutional crises. This posture was sometimes con fused with cowardliness. He explaine that it was a matter of the institutiona' responsibility of the President not t throw the country into a crisis. When th: interests of the country required that hi take a strong position, he never vacil lated. When it was necessary, Anthill Carlos Magalhaes was swept off the man of federal power without hesitation. "He made many mistakes, especiall with regard to the exchange rate. Hew a careless manager, many times the vi•tim of his own intellectual arrogance. H found it extraordinarily difficult to de onstrate solidarity with the people, b :cause of his preoccupation with not ta ing a populist stance. "But, as his administration is reac ing its end, intellectual circles have b gun to revise their appraisal of his ail ministration. The power of the old p litical machines has been reduced n some ministries. Most of the state ent:rprises have been privatized, the rest ha e p.rofessional ized management. T e Presidency is no longer amagical, Freu • ian institution, but a political one, w th the obligation to make an accounting of its acts. Fiscal responsibility has I ecome an indispensable requirement. A d all ofthis has been done without d ism . ntling the state, as the savage libel.: Is would have done. "If Fernando Henrique Cardoso ad had more managerial determinati n, much more could have been done. e would not have had the burden off I ur years Of an erroneous foreign exch ge policy, and the public debt accumul ed during that period. But the ideal is the enemy of the good. -As his government reaches its :nd, the commentaries are becoming ess passionate, as the political work is b ing completed, we are able to see the re Its of the process. There is no doubt th , in the future, we will look back with nostalgia on the times when FHC calle o the politicians into the Palace and, ha fan hour later, a conversation had ab rted
political crises that, in other times, would have paralyzed the country." As this is being written. Brazil's attention is focused on the race to succeed Cardoso. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Workers' Party's perennial candidate, is ahead in the polls. But he was just as far ahead at this point in the last two presidential campaigns, and many observers believe that the candidate of Cardoso's party, Jose Serra, is more likely to win in the end. The Argentine collapse has put the country in a cautious mood, making it reluctant to break with a team that has kept it above water for the last eight years. But even if Lula were to win,, all indications were that he would not reverse Cardoso's major policy initiatives.6" Nor would Antonio Garotinho, the left-leaning governor of Rio de Janeiro who is close to Serra in the polls, or any other viable candidate. Cardoso felt confident that the quality of the work undertaken by the federal government will be recognized in the ballot box.' It seems clear that Cardoso's key policies will continue, even if the politics changes. In 1994, the British Marxist Perry Anderson predicted that "Cardoso will be the best president in the history of Brazil."62 Eight years later, he should feel no need to regret his statement. " Draibe, op. cit., p. 114. 34 Cardoso, Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional, op. cit., p. 45. "0 Brasil, por, esse criterio elementar, era um exemplo acabado de Estado do mal-estar social, que tirava dos pobres para dar aos ricos e remediados. Reverter esse quadro implica esforcos arduos e muito persistentes ,para livrar o Estado brasileiro do jugo de grupos favorecidos que o envolvem por fora e o colonizam por dentro. Outras batalhas ainda tell() de ser travadas, mas algumas vitorias importantes ja podem ser destacadas na longacampanhaparacolocar as maiorias destituidas no topo das prioridades do gasto 35 Sonia Draibe, op. cit., p. 121. 36 Sonia Draibe, op. cit., p. 121. " These tables are from Graeff, op. cit. "Cardoso, Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional, op. cit., p. 192. 39 Ibid. 40 Land statistics from Cardoso,
57
Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional, p. 195. 41 Putin's speech as summarized in The Economist, April 20, 2001, p. 50. " The amendments are listed in Cardoso, Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional, pp. 478-479. 43 Rubens, Penha Cysne, -Macroand Microeconomic Aspects of the Reforms," in Renato Baumann, op. cit., pp 39-40. 44 Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional, p. 509. Ibid., p. 510. uma empreitada ' Ibid., p. 503. que passa pela superacao de dilemas obsoletos, como estatismo versus livre mercado, ou a falsa identificacao entre o pnblico e o estatal. 0 objetivo nao Ê o Estado-minimo nem maximo, mas o Estado necessario. Um Estado que construa e fortaleca as condicaes necessarias ao crescirnento da economia e enfrente o desafio da universalizacao do acesso aos servicos pUblicos, corn prioridade parao atendimento as demandas das camadas mais pobres." " All of these, and many more, are described by Cardoso in the chapter on -Democratizacao do Estado in the Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional, available at: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ publi 04/reformadoestado.pdf. Ibid., p. 499. 49 Cardoso, Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional, Introduccao, p. xx. Atrevome a afirmar que nunca na historia do Brasil. c muito poucas vezes no mundo, transformacOes tao profundas foram conduzidas na plenitude da democracia, corn a participacao de toda a sociedade e o consenso de uma ampla maioria. 5° Perhaps the best way to express the difference in Portuguese is to distinguish betweenpolaicas governamentais or publicas and politicas partidarias or eletorais. 51 Simon Romero, -A Leftist City Makes Money to its Own Drummer," The New York Times, February 4,2002. http://www.nytimes.com. " Rubens, Penha Cysne, -Macroand Microeconomic Aspects of the Reforms," op cit., pp. 56, 84. " Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mensages ao Congresso Nacional, op cit, p. 476. -precisa de mucancas que fortalecam ao mesmo tempo os partidos e o vinculo do eleitor corn seus representantes."
58
.54 Table One is from Graeff, op. cit. " Petras and Veltmeyer, op cit., p. 139. 56 James Petras, "You have to take action from below," The Labor Standard, http://www.laborstandard.org/ New Postings/ petras on argentina.htm. " This chart is from Graeff, op. cit. " See William C. Smith and Nizar Messari, "Democracy and Reform in Cardoso's Brazil: Caught Between Clientelism and Global Markets?" for a discussion of alternative scenarios. Available in Jeffrey Stark, ed, The Challenge of Change in Latin America and the Caribbean, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001, or online at http://www.miami.edu/nsc. " Luis Nassif, Folha de Selo Paulo, 9 March 2002, op. cit. "Muitas vezes suportou tiroteios pesados, afim de evitar crises institucionais. Essaposturachegou a ser confundida corn pusilanimidade. Ele proprio explicava que se tratava de responsabilidade institucional de
presidente, de nao jogar o pals em uma crise. Quando o interesse do pals exigiu posicifies firmes, jamais vacilou. Quando precisou, ACM foi varrido do mapa federal sem que FHC nem sequer piscasse. Errou muito, especialmente na politica cambial, que quase compromete sua obra politica. Foi urn gestor descuidado, muitas vezes vitima de sua prOpria arroganciaintelectual e corn uma dificuldade extraordinaria em demonstrar solidariedade ao seu povo, devido a preocupacao de nao parecer populista. Mas, a medida que seu governo vai chegando ao final, em muitos setores intelectuais tem inicio um processo inedito de reconhecimento de sua acao politica. As armas da fisiologia foram reduzidas a alguns ministerios. A maior parte das estatais de mercado foi privatizada, as demais tiveram a gestao profissionalizada. A Presidencia deixou de ser uma instituicao magicae freudiana
para se transformar em um poder a mais, com obrigacao de prestar contas de seus atos. A responsabilidade fiscal tornouse valor irreversivel. Etudo isso sem que houvesse o desmanche do Estado, como pretendiam os liberais selvagens. Houvesse mais determinacao gerencial de parte de Fernando Henrique, muito mais poderia ter sido feito. Nab haveria o atraso decorrente de quatro anos de politica cambial errada nem a divida pnblica acumulada no periodo. Mas o ideal ĂŠ inimigo do born. A medida que seu governo vai chegando ao fim, as avaliaceies perdem o passionalismo, a obra politica vai se completando, permitindo entender o fim do processo, nao restam dovidas de que havera saudades dos tempos em que FHC chamava os politicos no Palacio e, meia hora depois, uma boa conversa abortava crises politicas que, em outros tempos, paralisariam o pals. Quemacompanhou o dia-a-dia desses quase oito anos sabe que o pais poderia estar numa posicao muito a frente, houvesse determinacao administrativa de FHC. Mas quem olha para a Argentina se cid conta de que fazer a transicao do velho para o novo regime, preservando o pals e as instituicties, talvez tenha sido o feito mais importante da moderna historia politica do pals. Luis Nassif Inassif@uol.com.br "Thomas Traumann,"Pensando urn Governo Lula," Revista Epoca, April 22, 2002. www.epoca.globo.com.br. 61 Panorama Brasil, "FHC diz que sucessor dard continuidade ao seu trabalho," April 30, 2002, .Yahoo! Noticias at: http://br.news.yahoo.com/ 020430/13/3105.html. a qualidade do trabalho empreendido pelo governo federal sera reconhecida pelas urnas" 62 Quoted in Petras and Veltmeyer, op cit., p. 157. This is the second and final part of the concluding chapter of the Portuguese edition of Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Reinventing Democracy in Brazil to be soon published in Portuguese by Editora Saraiva. The chapter is called "Eight Years of Pragmatic Leadership in Brazil." The book's author, Ted Goertzel, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, in Camden, New Jersey. He can be reached at goertzel(tecrab.rutgers.edu
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